What’s for lunch? Yesterday I talked about the tool of specificity. By looking closely at – and writing about – the details, we can often jumpstart the writing process and end up in a completely different place than where we started. The benefit of specificity is that takes out some of the mystery of the […]
Read more "Writing Tool: School Lunches"A new goal for this week: look closer, dig deeper, find the details. When you’re not working on a big project (like a novel or a collection of poems), it can be difficult to get to the page and write something imaginative. But sometimes even the most prosaic of situations or items can contain […]
Read more "Take a closer look"The World Is Enough By Elizabeth Cutright Slipping through the Spanish countryside on one of Spain’s speedy and modern trains headed to Toledo, I was so happy that I’d looked sleep deprivation bravely in the face and said, “you will not defeat me!” At about 4am in the morning, it looked like I wasn’t going […]
Read more "When the world is a monster, tame it with details."Draft Dodging By Elizabeth Cutright Yesterday I wrote about the paralyzing power of perfectionism. And whether we like it or not, the most successful weapon against perfectionism is imperfection – we must face our fear of looking stupid or inept or untalented by just giving in to our weaknesses. In that way, we will uncover […]
Read more "Perfectionism and Shitty First Drafts"Contrasts and Comparisons By Elizabeth Cutright (Excerpted from East Junction, a novel in progress) It was the sort of exhaustion that takes over your entire body – wrapping you up in a gossamer web of steely threads. Gillian felt paralyzed, and she knew it had more to do with emotional exertions than anything overtly physical. […]
Read more "Let your character tell the story."To Me, You Will Always Be (for CH, who lost Doc on 01/01/1999) By Elizabeth Cutright To me, you will always be… running after rocks, and chasing your own tail; that goofy smile across your face, pawing me in a muddy embrace. To me, you will always be… the one that was up for anything […]
Read more "In Remembrance"I’ve been feeling under the weather the last few days – finally succumbing to whatever flu virus is going around – and so I haven’t felt up to writing, let alone creating any new content. Of course I feel tremendous guilt about this. I committed to writing in this blog regularly – hopefully every day, […]
Read more "Overcoming Doubts and Doldrums"The Faintest Ink By Elizabeth Cutright I’m sure you’ve had the experience of happening upon an old piece of writing – maybe a short story from grammar school or a love poem from the 16-year-old-you, maybe even that earnest college paper about the fall of the Roman Empire – and buckling under that powerful cringe […]
Read more "Fail, Fumble and Fall – but make sure to get it all on paper."Rumor Comes to Town By Elizabeth Cutright Whispers dart ’round corners, Tap you on the shoulder, And slip into your ear unseen. Rumor’s come to town today. Tall tales and asinine asides. All scandal & circumstance Laid out before us Like a last supper feast. Protagonist or villan, The teller never really cares. It’s the […]
Read more "Personification: Make a “thing” a character."Opening Scene to Whistling in the Graveyard By Elizabeth Cutright FADE IN: Interior: BEDROOM-6:00am The red numbers of a digital alarm clock read 5:59 am. As they click over to 6:00 am, the radio turns on and Tom Petty’s “American Girl” blares out, tinny and scratchy over the radio’s tiny speaker. A tanned, androgynous hand […]
Read more "Screenplays & Opening Scenes"
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