McSweeney's Ultimate Guide for Writing Better than you Normally Do.

 
Read the article HERE

Things We Owe to Shakespeare

Over Labor Day weekend Husband and I took another trip down to Ashland, Oregon.  This time around we stayed overnight so that we would have time to attend a show in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  We saw Love's Labor Lost, one of the plays that I we were not familiar with.  It is a comedy and we really enjoyed it!  In honor of our trip I thought I'd share this little find:

I don't know who the original credit for this lovely little tidbit goes to, but I love it.  Shakespeare is certainly not my specialty, but I'm not surprised how many phrases we owe to him.

I've been working on planning my syllabus for the freshman writing course that I am teaching this fall.  I'll have lots of thoughts about that coming soon!

300 Words

After many months I have recently ended my on-again off-again relationship with Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.  For now.  I end it with sadness that it is over, fond memories and plans to repeat the whole thing again in the future at any time the inspiration (or lack there of) should strike me.  One of my favorite little tidbits from the book is Lamott's repeated prescription to write at least 300 words every day.  Just about one page of writing, 300 words is just enough to keep you moving through writer's block, inspiration block and motivation block.  It seems like such a reasonable expectation.  Just there, I'm already a third of the way done.

This week I quit my long-time job as your local neighborhood coffee slinger and worshiper in the house of Howard Schultz.  At the end of September I'll begin a new life as a full-time graduate student and writing teacher to college freshman at Portland State University (more on that later).  In the meantime I'm going to have a little bit of time on my hands.  You may know that my husband and I recently bought a fixer.  The house itself, as well as the blog that goes along with it, are sure to take up a good chunk of my time over the next several weeks.  But I don't want descriptions of garden photos and instructions on how to paint 1970's paneling to be the only writing I do during this rare era of freedom.

So for the next six weeks, and maybe beyond, I plan to fill Lamott's prescription (pretty much) every day.  Some of those days I'll write here.  As I mentioned, I'll be teaching writing for the first time this coming fall and there is a lot going on in my mind to that tune.  I also want to start keeping a journal of sorts about our new house.  It will be a good supplement to all the photos and memories that we will have of our first real home.  And then of course there is always the house blog.  I suppose any real content there will count, too.  So keep your eyes out for more here soon.  I'll let you know how it goes.

And just to illustrate how easy this is... I just wrote 370 words.

Word Coasters

I may have mentioned before that I am into design.  Having an interest in design, reading and writing, I'm naturally drawn to the fusion of these topics.  Writing about design?  Yes.  Designs that incorporate writing?  Yes.  Today I came across these coasters that incorporate not just writing, but literature in their design.

The set of four handmade ceramic coasters features real pages from an antique copy of The Scarlett Letter.  What could be better for the home of a book lover?  I'm not being reimbursed in any way for promoting these coasters, I just thought I'd share because I like them so much.  See these and other (often word-related) coaster designs from the designer here:  http://www.artfire.com/users/CoastingAlong

Mark it in Pencil Wordle

Just something a little bit fun today.  Have you heard of Wordle?  At www.wordle.net you can analyze text to see what words you use most and make a fun image while you're at it.  Here's the wordle I made for Mark it in Pencil:

Prepositions and Em Dashes

Today I want to share two things that were recently shared with me.  I've have always been of the opinion that writing rules are often a bit overrated and should be broken as a writer deems appropriate.  In some cases, however, I believe that rule-breaking can be a bit overdone.  I agree with an article from Slate Magazine that my sister sent along this week on the overuse of the "Em dash."  You know that good old dash - the one used to separate a clause or emphasize a point in lieu of other forms of punctuation?  Emily Dickinson may have used it well, but common usage has brought it to a whole new level - less artistic - and more - annoying.

Check out this article for Slate contributor Noreen Malone's argument against the Em dash:  http://www.slate.com/id/2295413

On a more positive note, for the rule breaking type at least, is a video from Merriam-Webster's "ask the editor" shared with me by my husband.  I have been long known to end a sentence with a preposition when the moment is right; check out Merriam-Webster's argument:

Happy rule breaking!

NW 23rd Ave Interview: Camille Pandian of Reveille

This week I interviewed Camille Pandian, co-owner of NW 23rd Ave newest addition, Reveille.  Just opened, the shop features a variety of hand-selected vintage clothing along with beautiful, high quality, original clothing, shoes and accessories for men and women.  Read about the owners' backgrounds, their love for Portland and the inspiration behind the shops beautiful goods and decor at www.nw23dav.wordpress.com.

For a direct link to my interview with Camille, click here.

Find Reveille on Facebook and watch for their future website at www.reveilleshop.com for more info and online shopping!

Back from Vacation. Back to School!

Sunset over Maho Bay, St. John

Right before we headed off on vacation a few weeks ago I got some great news.  I've been accepted into the Masters Program in English at PSU (Portland State University) for next fall.  On top of that, I've also been offered a graduate assistantship, which means I get to be even more involved in the department and I'll get lots of experience teaching and working in academics!  I'm really excited to get started with classes and new experiences, but that only leaves a few months of freedom before I'll be dedicating all of my reading and writing energy to academics.  In celebration, I'm planning a pre-grad-school pleasure reading marathon.  Starting school full time again is the perfect motivation to finish up all those books I've been meaning to get to.  In between house hunting and other summer adventuring, I'll be reading as much as I can!  But more on that later.  As I mentioned, I just got back from vacation!  If you haven't already seen where we were, check out www.maho.org.

Click below to keep reading - see photos of the trip and find out how the beach reading went!

Beach Reading 2

We're off for another beach vacation this week, so I thought I'd share with you once again what I'll be bringing with me.  Amazingly enough I haven't actually finished all the books I brought with me last time.  I tend to set books aside when I get distracted by something else and sometimes it takes me a while to get get back to them.

This time we're trying to pack light so I'm being very realistic about what I can (will) read in a week full of hiking, snorkeling and other beachy activities.

I've still (yes still) been picking my way through Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.  This book is amazing and I don't want it to end.  I pick it up and read a little any time I need to be inspired.  But if I just go ahead and finish it I can always just go back and read it again.

 

I've actually bought Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants before another beach trip a few years ago.   It happened, however, to be the same trip that I started reading the Twilight series so you can guess what happened with that.  I've never gotten around to reading it since.  

I chose Water for Elephants because I was recently tipped off that it is being made into a movie.  I've heard great things about the book so I figured I should hurry up and get on the wagon.  Check out the trailer:

Of course, I'll be bringing a few issues out of my big stack of unread Sun Magazines.  All the short stories, poems and interviews make for great beach reading (I highly recommend checking out The Sun at www.thesunmagazine.org.

By the way, if you want to know more about where I'll be spending my vacation go to www.maho.org.

See you in a couple weeks!

Keep it Personal

If you read this blog you probably know that I write for a local blog here in Portland but did you know that I write two other personal blogs in addition to this one?  In addition to my love for all things reading and writing, I have a small passion for all things domestic.  On These Good Ideas I share (you guessed it) good ideas about all things that are happy and helpful for everyday life.  I share everything from new recipes to DIY projects to art and music finds.  The blog functions as a way for me to keep track of the things I want to remember and share them with others at the same time.  Multiple passions in life have a way of intermingling, don't they?  I have this little passion for design, but I notice that my design choices are often informed by my love of books and writing.  I am really into bookcases and decorating with books.  I also love to see pictures of typewriters and similar writing and reading inspired art.  Check out this picture I recently bought from 20X200.com:

I love this photo and I can't wait to frame it and hang it right over my writing desk.  Anywho, lately I've been thinking about personal writing.  I have most recently started a third blog, this time with my husband.  We are beginning the process of searching for a new home and (we hope) diving into the world of homeownership.  I do most of the actual writing for the blog and I've been working on keeping it really personal.  It is, after all, directly about my personal life.  I've come to realize that personal writing is not something that happens just because you decide to do it.  Really personal writing is something that you have to come into; it is a response to an emotional state that you have to find a way to get yourself into.  You have to really feel something about your subject or else it will come out dry and boring.  For most purposes I use free-writing to try to get into the right state of mind.  I find that if I write long enough, and more importantly without pressure to write certain things or in a certain way, I can usually get to the right place.  For blogging purposes, however, I've found a different tactic.  I find it really helps to imagine that I'm writing to someone.  Not a general audience but a specific person, anyone who might be reading and try to imagine what I would say to him or what I would write to him if he were the only one who was going to read it.  For the new blog I imagine that I am writing to my mother.  We live on opposite sides of the country and since she can't be here to help with the house search the blog is a great way to keep her up to date.  I definitely notice that when I stay in the mindset of writing to her my posts are shorter, clearer and easier to read.  I don't ramble as much, I just tell her what I think she would want to know and I write it just like I would write it to her.  I've been transferring this tactic over to my other blogs too and I hope it makes a difference.  Let me know what you think!