James Writes

I write. I Tell. I Story.

[dsxsbx]

Long Train Running // Fabrice Gallina

[frodosghost]

Just something that feels important.

[frodosghost]

When the battle is with words, sometimes you have to fight dirty to feel like the victor.

A little comic. A little fun.

[frodosghost]

Playing with Legos is More Valuable than Learning Algebra

I was homeschooled. My mom really wanted to have a highly structured and rigorous curriculum for us. She didn't. She tried - lord knows the number of books she purchased at annual...

[frodosghost]

From the Praxis blog. It’s really stressful for most young (and old!) people to feel the need to pick the career or job and plot a path to it. How are you supposed to know yourself so well in the ...

Not a bad idea...

[frodosghost]

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/387711-build-a-man-a-fire-and-he-ll-be-warm-for

[nevver]

Life 101

[nevver]

Paris 1944 and now, Julien Knez

[nevver]

Million Dollar Movie

[frodosghost]

You'd better hurry up. I'd start writing if I were you. Do you want to know how to write novels? I'll tell you the secret: start on page one and keep going, in order, until you come to the last page. Then stop.

A long-necked cat sitting on the shelf. From “The Rabbit Back Literature Society”.

[nevver]

The New Yorker

[nevver]

Dostoevsky

[frodosghost]

There is a growing anti-intellectual dumbing down of our culture

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Issac Asimov

[frodosghost]

Few people on the planet have lived the kind of globetrotting and adventure-filled life that chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain has. You can probably learn a thing or two from the man.

[gelrev-blog]

Fear and Loathing in the Meadows

[booksandpublishing]

Writing novels is a very disciplined business. Writing a poem is like having an affair, a one-night stand; a short story is a romance, a relationship; a novel is a marriage—one has to be cunning, devise compromises, and make sacrifices.

Amos Oz, The Art of Fiction No. 148. (via booksandpublishing)

[frodosghost]

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take a while. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i-wish