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Why the Mountain Ear?
We started the Mountain Ear (both times) because we wanted better coverage of local news. There are so many board meetings, and all of them are important. The Tobacco Valley News faces the same problem we do- not enough people and too many meetings, and their focus is on a larger area. So we started the Mountain Ear. It’s volunteer operated- no paid writers (best I can do is to let you know that…
Have you written lately? Here's Suzanne Sherman's inspiring response!
At a New Year’s Eve party, someone asked if I’m writing lately. I said yes, I’m always writing. The next day, I decided to sit down for 10 minutes to explore the reason for my answer. Writing nonstop for 10 minutes on the topic turned out to be another good example of how writing lets us dig deeper and find out what we really think about something. I share that writing here with you, writer to…
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THOUGHTS FROM A POET
"I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems."
"At sixteen the poet reads Whitman and Homer and wants to be immortal. Alas, at twenty-four the same poet wants to be in The New Yorker." – Donald Hall
Why, why in the blue-green world write this sort of thing? Funny written culture, I guess; we pass things on.
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974
I THINK I AGREE
"You don't write novels for a reaction. You write novels for very personal reasons."
– Bret Easton Ellis
Have YOU been to GREAT DARKNESS NATIONAL PARK? Step inside the past and the void....
How do you define a story? There’s no right or wrong answer. What makes a good story to you? Why do you write?
What a story is to Kristina.
A story is a portal through which the reader may choose to step, finding the same words that have been used by countless others for centuries arranged in such a way that s/he experiences something new, something wonderful, something surprising and steps out the other side changed, even in the slightest, by the journey.
What a story is to Jonathan.
I write because it feels good. And because I hope that what I write will mean something to someone. Perhaps a reader will identify with the struggles of one of my characters, and find hope in how they overcome their obstacles. The joy and relief of discovering that someone feels the same way you do, and struggles the same way you do, is a potent feeling that can dispel the deepest darkness. ‘But those are fictional characters, Jonathan,’ you say. Yes, but a real person wrote them into being, someone who likely shares your feelings and used their own experience to craft a character with the unique powers to handle something that they personally have struggled to resolve, and through that act of creation found the strength to change themselves…in real life. That power to change is the hallmark of a good story to me. To quote a popular song: “I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.”
Why do you read? Why do you write? What is your definition of a story?
I BEG TO DIFFER
"There are really only two reasons to write: desperation or revenge."
– Elizabeth Hardwick
I write so I can read stuff I really enjoy! What's YOUR reason?
