Read to Write
January 26, 2011
I’ve been waiting for Zeruya Shalev’s book Thera to be translated to English since the original Hebrew publication two years ago. After reading her other books, especially Husband and Wife, I grabbed the first copy off the Steimatsky shelves last week and have sunk into her brilliant, melancholy writing once again. The reason I like reading her so much is because she helps me open up my own writing and frees me to make random associations like she does with her superbly original metaphors. Read to write. Not to copy anyone else. Just to deepen your own original voice. Try it!
Welcome
June 4, 2009
Writing fiction after memoir is a challenge. Two years into a new project, the advice I received about keeping it simple and writing in the third person now seems so clever. But, I’ve always done things the complicated way around. My three characters who only express their thoughts in the present tense might work out, and on the other hand, might not. But what I’ve found is that whenever I rewrite my work and change tenses, I open it up to new possibilities. My tip for the day; don’t be afraid to experiment. Copy and pasting onto a new word doc gives us so much freedom. The previous draft will always be there anyway.