Writing (or Any Creative Activity) and the Fear of Being Less Than Amazing

If you’ve spent most of your life cruising ahead on natural ability, doing what came easily and quickly, every word you write becomes a test of just how much ability you have, every article a referendum on how good a writer you are. As long as you have not written that article, that speech, that …

Ambition vs. learning

David Foster Wallace on Ambition (animated interview from PBS Digital Studios) There are lots of things that interest me about doing improv, but one of the top is that there’s no time when you’re performing improv that you can perfect anything. The scene you are making exists, and then it’s gone — it exists perhaps …

The future of the book (take 2)

UPDATE: Find the liveblog of the event at this newer post. The much-anticipated but sadly postponed discussion on The Future of the Book has been rescheduled for April 1. Sven Birkerts Maud Newton Essayist Sven Birkerts and Blogger Maud Newton to Discuss the Impact Of Technology on the Publishing Industry, April 1 at Pitt PITTSBURGH- …

The future of the book

UPDATE: Another casualty of Snowpocalypse 2010, the “Future of the Book” discussion has been postponed. With luck it will be rescheduled soon. Next Thursday, the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series at Pitt’s Creative Writing program will hold an event of primo interest to me: a discussion titled “The Future of the Book,” featuring Sven Birkerts and …

Day 1: Well-begun is half done

Back Bay Brewing cap, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey. It’s November, that heady month when people across the Web and around the world leave behind silly things such as reason and rationality and hygiene and take on tremendous challenges. NaNoWriMo. NaBloPoMo. DrawMo! And many other Mos of which I’m as yet unaware. This year I’m tackling …

Happy birthday, Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was born August 22, 1893. Celebrate this date with a Martini; two at the very most. Here’s a Parker poem to enjoy as well: Interview The ladies men admire, I’ve heard, Would shudder at a wicked word. Their candle gives a single light; They’d rather stay at home at night. They do not …

Master storytelling

301W4GhCi0Q It’s Indy 4 Weekend. Whether or not you’re planning to check out the latest installment in the adventures of Indiana Jones, you might be interested to see a bit of suspense its director created early in his career: 1971’s The Duel. In this low-budget, made-for-TV movie, which Steven Spielberg made when he was 23 …