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What I’ve been writing about
As I work on my Thesis for the Hopkins Program, I’ve had people ask me “what it’s about.” The short answer is that I don’t know. The thesis is a collection of highly-reworked and revised stories I’ve done for the program. I’ve written about a wide range of topics. So I thought I’d try Wordle,…
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16 Interesting Ideas from AWP 2011
This year, I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference here in icy Washington DC. It’s a massive conference, with hundreds of panels and sessions to choose from (though I’m not sure if quantity was better than quality). AWP also featured a book fair / publishers exhibition bigger than a football field.…
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5 mistakes writers make when doing interviews, and how to avoid them
Interviewing someone for a story is difficult. Getting people to give you valuable, useful, interesting information in a colorful way is no small task. You need to ask good questions, follow up, take notes, as well as observe the environment and personal mannerisms. It’s a lot to process, and it only gets harder when you…
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The Art of Writing the Tough Profile
Gay Talese’s famous “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” is a legendary profile for many reasons, perhaps most notably because the iconic singer wouldn’t talk to him directly. Talese nonetheless delivered an incredible profile of Sinatra, without the benefit of a direct interview. I thought briefly of Talese’s story when I read Nick Paumgarten’s excellent New…
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Washington Post’s “Facebook Story”
As I’ve noted before, many modern web communications create natural narratives. “A Facebook Story” by Ian Shapira in the Washington Post is a powerful work of narrative journalism that follows the story of a pregnant woman’s journey through her posts and those of her family and friends. Most of the story is told through the…
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Five ways to make writing harder than it needs to be
The more I write, the more I notice myself repeating the same mistakes during the writing process, bad habits that waste time and energy. Since I’m often short on both, it’s worth being aware of those pitfalls and trying to avoid them. Maybe others have the same issues. 1. Writing without a map Perhaps if…
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Great paragraphs: “Mom let her be who she was”
One skill I’ve learned to appreciate is the crafting of really good paragraphs. Sounds simple, but great writers can craft a paragraph with something that lesser writers would use pages to accomplish. So I’m going to start noting and writing about examples of insanely well-written grafs… First up, I noted this amazing graf in Gary…
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What writers can learn from Kobe Bryant
During the first game of the 2010 NBA Finals, ABC showed a halftime feature on Kobe Bryant and how he spends hours studying game film of other players; not only contemporary rivals, but legends of the game: Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan. He studies the nuances of their…
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Where I went
It’s been a few months since updating this site. The reason for this: the birth of our second daughter, Angelina in February. It’s been a busy, sleepless, wonderful few months with her, but it’s left little time for writing. Hopefully that’s about to change soon… I expect to start resuming more regular writing here this…
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Eclectic Method’s “story”
Over the years, I’ve been a huge fan of all forms of mash-ups and bootlegs. Back when I used to have free time, I did a bunch of my own audio mash-ups for kicks, some of which got picked up and played around the world. Anyway, I recently discovered Eclectic Method, a group that specializes…