an object lesson

I was at Nick's trying to write, like I do Sundays, and out of desperation, because nothing is a better task master than a blank page you are stuck in front of, and I came up with the title The Mugshot of Dorian Gray. I liked it. I knew it was something I could do, and I quickly wrote the first couple sentences and they seemed good and then I did the dumb thing, the awful thing, I said outloud, "Damn, this thing is going to write itself."

Never say that.

It is akin to writer's blasphemey. Sneering at the god of grammar and tense.

After another 150 words the story stalled. It wasn't working. It was certainly not writing itself. Luckily I still liked the title so I tried it again from the Title and nothing else and I was able to get through it. I was able to beg forgiveness for such silly arrogance.

Here is the story.
http://www.fiction365.com/2013/01/the-mugshot-of-dorian-gray/

Dirt Bikes is Up

Here is a half autobiographical story (guess which half) I wrote. I must say that I hear many responses to critiques on dialogue or plot issues with "But that's how it happened.:" or "But that's exactly what they said." To that I say, "So what?" so your life didn't work well in a story structure. Fix it. Change it. Lie like a bastard. Have fun.

Here is the story

http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/01/dirt-bikes.html

Mothful of Nonsense

I have a story being published at Linguistic Erosion in a few days and it will allow me to go off on something that annoys me: the belief that stories need to be autobiography. I think that that is such a small, inhibiting way of seeing storytelling. The Moth is this storytelling thing where hipsters tell true stories in an ironic This American Life sort of way. Some of it is good, but most strikes me as self indulgent.

I wrote three pieces in the fall that were my take on the moth. I started each story with a real story of my life and then went complete fabrication. Complete bullshit. It was a total joy to write this, to take real tales and say the hell with it. Only after I wrote them did I realize I was making a comment on the Moth and all the memoir brigade.

More later