Words Written Down Book

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Words Written Down

A journey with a boy and his blog

My ruminations on book, magazine & web writing of interest

Dave Stark

March 2012

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Overview

Words Written Down is a compilation book project that came out of the blog www.wordswrittendown.com

and an appreciation of words put down on a page in a meaningful order. The blog itself was begun some 3 ½ years ago and contains the following top of page description: Blog is all about words because... they

matter, they influence, they entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page in a

meaningful order, they acquire permanence. Contained here are a bunch of written words in the form of book reviews, magazine and web article links & summaries and other stuff I like to write about.

Links noted throughout the book can be found at the referenced blog post and criterion for inclusion of each revolves around the concept of Interesting. If writing was deemed interesting, it‘s noted along with my ruminations on the topic and view of what makes that particular set of words grouped together into a book or story be so good that they acquire permanence.

The goal of Words Written Down is to highlight and pay homage to this permanence of words. Why? Cause I like words.

Writers on words

Joe Posnanski from his blog post "The Most Beautiful Word" – "Something kind of clicked with me, I think; it

was a whole other way of looking at words. And over time I would start to think about that, how words sound together, how the pacing of language and how the velocity and tempo can create layers of meaning, the staggering power of the simplest words."

J.R. Moehringer describing in his book The Tender Bar a relationship with various father figures – “That was

the day everything changed. I‟d always thought there had to be a secret password into the men‟s circle. Words were the password.”

Writers on writing

Kevin Van Valkenburg from the Chris Jones blog post ‖LAST CALL AT ELAINE'S, ft. KEVIN VAN

VALKENBURG‖ – “I write because I want to say something beautiful and true. And I want it to connect with

someone who reads it, even if we never meet, or the reader hasn't even bothered to see my name atop the story.”

Scott Raab in his website post ―Writing‖ – “Writers love to write — and not because it‟s easy. Getting it

right isn‟t easy at all, and that challenge is a big part of why writers love to write. It‟s a high, working on your game, a way of being in the world that feels absolutely honest and true.”

Could just as easily have included here writing on words or writing from any of Wright Thompson, Chris Jones, S.L. Price or many other great writers.

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A topic I've thought about quite a bit and have written around, but never quite about, is why I like writing. Now, this blog is all about writing (note the blog title) and I've gone beyond the book reviews and magazine article links a few times to get at what I'm doing with the blog. Perhaps it's even been a

somewhat annual process with Like To Write Stuff: Why & How Thus Far from August 2008 and Wherefore the Blog... Again that was posted December of last year. So I've certainly thought about what I'm doing with the blog and have established what it's about, but have not (least I don't think) written about why I like writing. The answer to this is arrived at through a bit of a progression... Starting off, I'd say that I think everyone should have a thing that's of import to them. When I say that, I'm thinking of that thing being something greater than simply liking a given sports team (as Joel Klein wrote of in this Time Magazine piece (which I posted about here) or being say... good at video games. I'm thinking more along the lines of something with some heft and meaning to it. Now, this isn't to marginalize the huge significance of being a good parent or friend as someone's thing, but me thinks there's a lot to be said for people having

something that serves as a creative outlet. Some people's creative type thing is to paint, some to make movies, some to excel at a particular sport... I simply like the idea of my thing being words. When I think about words, the feeling I have is that they matter (least the ones that are put together into a meaningful order). They influence, they entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page, they acquire permanence. There's a certain gravitas about something that remains behind in written form... whether that be on a printed page or out on the superhighway of information. Either way it's stored and delivered, something written down leaves a metaphorical vapor trail. It may be a crazy good trail in the

neighborhood of F. Scott Fitzgerald level prose or it may be less than one of the great books, but either way, words written down have permanence. This concept of permanence very much relates to what I've tried to do thus far with this blog... to create a record both of good writing I've come across and why I like it (and have that be hopefully in a somewhat entertaining fashion). This record may be something that someone else reads on the blog and finds of note, it may be something that I look back on to remember cool stuff I've read, or it may be something the kiddos see in future years and find interesting that their Pa did. Now, in terms of more traditional narrative writing (fiction or non-fiction both), would I love to be able to at some point answer the "what do you do?" question by saying "I'm a writer?" Darn tootin' I would. Even if that doesn't take place, though, I like words. I like what they can do and I like creating a record of myself in relation to words... both ones arranged well by others and my own original ones. Yep, I like to write (and read... and link to good) stuff.

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Blog Process

With this appreciation for words hopefully firmly established (never fear, will later in the book be lots more pontificating on the value of words and referencing others doing so), the next step becomes a looking at the actual process around the blog and its writing. With much of the following taken from the August 2008 blog post Like To Write Stuff: Why & How Thus Far, going all the way back to 2005 I was a "read and rip out" kind of guy. I'd come across various things I find interesting (mostly magazine articles) and rip out and save the page(s). Blog was then created in mid 2006 with the first posts to it in mid 2007 being lists of articles ripped out along with associated websites from said articles. This process then continued on a here and there basis until mid 2008 when one of those strange lightning bolts of inspiration struck and the intent to not only link to things and writing of note, but actually write about what make them noteworthy was hatched. Since that sunny July day (actually, no idea of the weather that day), there‘s been some 500-600 posts done. Shortly after beginning the blog, a minimum of 11 posts done each month became a goal and while there have been a number of months with exactly 11 posts and it‘s understood nobody else keeping score, happy to say that there‘s always been at least 11 done per month. Small accomplishments can become big when added up, ya‘ know.

Blog Content

There really wasn‘t a starting grand design of what the blog would link to (keeping in mind most of the writing being appreciation and analysis of work done by others), but by virtue of my interest areas and associated magazine subscriptions, the blog topics have been around the following subject (or tag cloud section on the blog) areas… with many posts that could have gone into areas in addition to the one chosen:

 Writing – includes content from others on writing, my ruminations on it and a soliloquy post on the

topic of Social Media.

 Work – posts on both links to career related content and my writing around work.

 Sports – lots of extremely entertaining content linked to and written about in this category… love me some great sports writing. Also, it‘s a bit of an obvious statement but excellent sports writing is about more than just sports. Pieces referenced came from Sports Illustrated more than any other source.  Business – includes companies, profiles and lots of other business related content written on and linked

to. Some of the specific areas of business covered (and noted in the blog tag cloud) include customer service, social media and cloud computing. Content referenced as interesting came from a variety of sources, with Businessweek and Fast Company fairly heavily represented.

 Everything else – perhaps could have been named better, but really is… everything else (life, current

events, history, politics, money, profiles, etc) in terms of non-book content written on and linked to. A fair amount of the content noted came from both writing in and writers for Time or Esquire.

 Book reviews – Not all the books were great, but definitely quite a few excellent ones I‘ve read and

posted reviews on here.

 Blogging – posts around creation of and process of the blog… like the ―Why & How Thus Far‖ post

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written on. For this reason, posts that fell in the category of Blogging were left out of the book as they mostly feature recaps of blog work done to that point.

Book Process

Translation from the blog to the book is for the most part an only slightly edited transcription of each post. There were some posts not carried over to the book as time passed rendered them not terribly interesting (keeping in mind litmus test for inclusion on the blog has always been this interesting so the book no different), but most represented in the book. It should be noted that not every story or reference to a story had to be interesting to make it in… just that there be something from each post of sufficient interest at the time of book compilation (with content from posts through the end of February 2012).

Another thing to note about the translation from blog to book is pieces referenced sometimes are noted by quotes, sometimes italics and sometimes nothing other than just the name of the piece… was a function of periodically changing styles throughout the years of doing the blog. Additionally, some posts feature an excessive usage of colons and other strange punctuation, which came about whilst moving content from blog to book and removing bullet point lists. Finally, the book biography… left out entirely as it can be found and best worked with online at www.wordswrittendown.com.

The blog has lots of content that can online be searched, categorized and sliced and diced any number of ways so the question of why to create a 150,000 word book might come up. It is a fair question and the overriding answer is why the heck not? If there‘s value in the words written in blog form, then there‘s also value in them sitting on the printed page… and links noted (oftentimes with a ―this blog post‖ mention) throughout the book can be found on the blog itself. Also, it may be a bit of a pet project, but a lot has gone into the blog and putting it in printed form adds to the aforementioned Permanence of Words concept.

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Writing

Writers on Writing - by Ballard, Jones & Sullivan – posted 2/15/2012

There have been a few great interviews I've come across lately featuring top level writers dishing on the process of writing. It‘s probably fitting that one interview was with Esquire writer Chris Jones as he's the guy whose writing helped spark my interest in great non-fiction prose, and then fed the flames of said interest with his Son of Bold Venture blog about "writing and words". Interview itself was done by Brandon Sneed on his website (which has also been a source of motivation about writing as a process). It was really interesting content under the title "Chris Jones of Esquire on His Zanesville Zoo Massacre Story 'Animals,' 'The Most Dramatic Story of The Year'". I'm waiting for the hard copy Esquire to arrive before reading the piece, but there were excellent nuggets of wisdom from Jones (prompted by Sneed questions) around writing. My take aways (which may well be different than those by other people) from the piece are as follows: Heavy sense of content focus by Jones with it being centered on the police and the writing in it being something sparse that "reads almost like a police report". Idea I took from this was the import of deciding on a particular approach to take and then following through. Also interesting from Jones was his commentary about writing to music... with his doing so actually referenced in one of the other recent interviews I've seen). Since I just brought it up... Sneed even more recently did for his website another great writing interview, this one with a writer answering questions about a piece I've actually already read. "Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated on his Mike Powell Story "Man In Full"—And Way More" contains some excellent writing wisdom type content from Ballard (again, extracted by Sneed's questions), most notable to me being the following: Ballard started at Sports Illustrated as a fact-checker and built up to doing feature pieces (a completely different approach to getting an SI gig than Thomas Lake wrote of his path being). Interesting was how fact-checking hammered home the need to be thorough in reporting... a common theme from writer wisdom pieces (like this featuring Michael Kruse) is the importance of solid reporting rather than simply grabbing perfect words out of the air. Also tremendously insightful from Ballard was his comment about immediately writing down an insight or feeling that strikes him. I've noticed in my own writing that I'll have a visceral reaction towards something I read, but if I don't note it immediately, I may have a hard time remembering what it was (this has led with the reading of books to needing to decide whether to take notes whilst reading as opposed to just finishing the thing and then going back through to capture the high points). Ballard also writes in this interview some excellent structure content with the Powell story (which was great, and I will post on before long) as containing multiple acts and a specific focus (reminiscent of Jones and his decisions made prior to writing). From a where and how to write perspective, there was interesting content about writing with friends in a bar as well as the idea (poached from Jones) of writing to one song on repeat). Additionally, there was good content on the outline, structure and lede of this particular piece written about Mike Powell and Ballard provided recommendations to other great writing, including The Imaginary Girlfriend, a sort of autobiography by prolific writer John Irving. After I've rambled on about the great content from Jones and Ballard, will be somewhat briefer about the third writer piece I've seen lately. Bookforum did an interview with John Jeremiah Sullivan which included content both on his book of essays, Pulphead (which I enjoyed tremendously) and areas of interest as a writer.

Specifically, Sullivan wrote "I‟m working on a book now about a German lawyer, an obscure jurist from

Upper Saxony who came to the New World, to South Carolina, in the 1730s. He tried to establish an enlightened republic among Cherokee Indians beyond the frontier, and he wrote a book, a kind of utopian manifesto that, based on what we know about it, was a century or more ahead of its time philosophically. It was destroyed when the English arrested him in the 1740s and it became a sort of a famous lost book. In my book, I‟m making the case that I‟ve identified it, that it exists. I‟m very curious about what happens to the Enlightenment when it arrives in the South." Sounds to me like it would be a terribly interesting read and

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Writing on Writing - from Kruse, Lake, Altucher and Pearlman – posted 2/1/2012

Have come across a number of interesting pieces lately on the why and how of writing that bear noting. Two different writer interviews were The Fury Files: Michael Kruse for the blog TVFury and Thomas Lake on Pop Herring, How to Make It as a Journalist, Coffee, and Why You "Have To Get Yourself Good" by Brandon Sneed for his website. From the Kruse interview I was struck by his statements on the absolute importance of solid reporting to the nonfiction writing process and the very methodical outlining he does prior to and as part of the actual writing. It was super detailed work that's a long ways from just sitting down and letting nonfiction magic flow to the page. The interview with Thomas Lake also featured the same idea of reporting leading to the story and an at times absolute dogged pursuit of access and information. Additionally, Lake spoke of his career path and the six years, four newspaper jobs and over a thousand stories written until he reached out to someone who opened the door for him to land at Sports Illustrated. Very cool content about putting in the work. Still on writing, but on a specific output of writing were two additional blog mentions of interest. James Altucher wrote Self-Publishing Your Own Book is the New Business Card which echoed and expanded on sentiments expressed in his book I Was Blind But Now I See and Jeff Pearlman wrote on his blog Chris Dessi comes of age about his former classmate‘s self-published book on Social Media Your World is Exploding.

Scott Raab on Writing / Dave Eggers on Creating (& not Dismissing) – posted 1/17/2012

Came across a few weeks ago a short and terribly insightful piece by Scott Raab (Esquire guy) on his website. The succinctly titled Writing has his advice for aspiring pen to page types and (to over simplify) boils down to if someone wants to be a writer, they write... and then they keep doing it. Raab's advice reminded me of stuff I've linked to from James Altucher (who extols the virtues of writing fast and self-publishing) and Brandon Sneed (who did a few posts on the writing process including an encouragement to write a book) and while not just on writing, seems in line with a Dave Eggers piece I recently found. Taken from a 2000 interview with The Harvard Advocate, his words on the dual subjects of creating / not dismissing create a mental visual of Eggers standing at a pulpit and railing away with his truth. What makes it all the much better is how much truth there seems to be in what Eggers so forcefully proclaims. Very cool stuff that connects with Messrs Raab, Sneed and Altucher is that each writes about the process of writing (heck, the process of anything if you want to expand the circle a bit) getting accomplished by just doing it and Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Kevin Van Valkenburg Q&A on Blog TVFury – posted 12/22/2011

It's been a few months since I've posted on any writing from Kevin Van Valkenburg and, fortuitously enough, came across recently a ridiculously goodQ&A with him about his career and other topics around writing with Kevin Van Valkenburg from TV Fury. Interview was done by and posted on the blog TVFury

("Sports, writing and life through the eyes of Terry Vandrovec and Shawn Fury") and the final words of the Q&A intro are pretty much catnip to someone with an interest in great narrative sports writing... "Here,

Kevin talks about growing up with an editor mom, life as a college football player, literary heroes, leaving Montana and living in Baltimore, his story that made it into the Best American Sportswriting book, The Wire, David Stern‟s ego, the writing life and much more." Couple of things that stood out in the (long at

10,000+ words) interview was how different journalism was when Van Valkenburg graduated college and (towards the end of the piece) his listing of favorite long-form pieces, books and authors. Quite a few of the writers noted were ones I follow and of particular interest was a quote from sportswriter S.L. Price in his excellent memoir Far Afield. Very well done interview with interesting answers provided. Not a surprise, though, as Van Valkenburg is a really good writer who (as noted in the piece) does a number of different types of writing. He references in the Q&A his most rewarding work being this five-part serial narrative about a football team in West Baltimore and my favorite piece of his I haven't already linked to was Sense of loss drives Ngata on Baltimore Ravens (and former Oregon Ducks) lineman Haloti Ngata. Additionally,

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Van Valkenburg is known for his interesting Five Things We Learned Baltimore Sun column following Ravens games.

Entrepreneurial Journalism Education / Difficulty in Sports Reporting Today – posted 12/9/2011

Expanding a bit on my post from yesterday about the Nieman Foundation (and Nieman Storyboard), I've come across some interesting Journalism education content lately including a webinar attended earlier this week. As could be expected, the online session was the most engaging of the various sources of wisdom and class itself the Knight Center webinar to teach journalists how to start a successful entrepreneurial project taught by journalist and City University of New York J-School professor Jeremy Caplan. I wouldn't say I was disappointed with my time spent, but it did leave me feeling it tough to get a tremendous amount from an online learning environment. There was the opportunity to post questions to a chat board that were then answered, but not much interactive learning (which isn't a terribly damning statement as you likely shouldn't expect much more from a two hour online session). There were important points made in the session, but I thought the content pretty basic business school type stuff (but, again... maybe that's not being critical as it could be new learning for some in the session). Actual application of the steps seemed to be described as most frequently towards building hyper-local community news websites. All in all, Journalism and the business around writing (which obviously could cast a pretty wide net) is definitely of interest and attending the session was a good step in learning more. On this subject of new opportunities in Journalism, the aforementioned Nieman Foundation had on its Nieman Lab site recently a Justin Ellis piece How Time Inc. is preparing for a future in digital news with a j-school of its own: Interesting concept with the old media giant offering in-house education (heavily leaning towards digital new media topics) to employees. Finally (and also related to the idea of changes in Journalism), excellent piece titled Death of the interview

posted to ESPN earlier this week. Written by Tim Keown, it delves into the changes in sports reporting in today's environment of short attention, tight news cycles and need for the sensational. Very solid piece that's both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Writing & Work from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism – posted 12/8/2011

Having not heard of it until fairly recently, I've found online some really cool work and resources from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. As is detailed on the about page of the site, the foundation administers a yearlong fellowship program for journalists, but where I heard about them was through the Nieman Storyboard website. Taken directly from the Storyboard about page... "Nieman Storyboard looks

at how storytelling works in every medium. In addition to highlighting outstanding print narratives, we seek to feature the best examples of visual, audio and multimedia narrative reporting. As a bonus, we‟ll also give you occasional updates on conferences, awards, and other narrative news." Given my interest in

learning more about and love of interesting narrative stories written down (and to fall a bit into a cliché)... that's right in my wheelhouse! First time I came across Nieman (Foundation or the Storyboard website) was with mention of venerable narrative journalist Gay Talese doing a lecture with two-time National Magazine Award winning Esquire writer Chris Jones. While it would have been great to actually attend the talk, Nieman Storyboard provided this transcript of the session as well as the notes from an equally interesting Jones Q&A with Narrative Writing Instructor Paige Williams. Looking further into the Storyboard site, I found noted as contributors a number of the writers whose stuff I admire and look for. From 2009 there was

Tommy Tomlinson: making words work for a living and more recently a Storyboard series titled why's this so good? with analysis of classic narrative nonfiction writing. Concept held a lot of sway with me as it's the intent of this blog... but, with stuff by accomplished writers rather than just my ramblings.

Penn State Crimes, Moral Failures & Journalism – posted 11/9/2011

While the typical path of this blog has been to link to and write about specific pieces or books that struck me as interesting, this post is about the Penn State scandal and it's mesmerizing (in mostly bad, but also some good) elements. Details of the actual indictment and alleged crimes within are horrifying, but what

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really captured attention has been the people apart from the accused molester Jerry Sandusky, especially living legend and now ex Penn State coach Joe Paterno. In his case, you have someone who has done much good, but in this case (by all appearances) failed at the most important moment. It's a fascinating subject, this concept of duality within an individual... his good deeds remain so, but one specific thing handled in entirely the wrong way impacted so much for the victims. Paterno is of course the most recognizable name involved that could have raised these allegations to police years ago, but there's also now ex Penn State President Graham Spanier and his head in the sand approach both years ago when Sandusky's crimes were raised and since the indictment came down over the weekend. If one can detach from the horrible nature of the crimes, it's a study in how people in power (now including the Penn State Board of Trustees that fired both Spanier and Paterno) react to events, create environments and set policy. So... the story itself has been riveting, but what also holding my attention over the past week has been the words from sports journalists reporting on the story. Some writers I respect a great deal have had

fascinating observations to make and they've first appeared as real-time twitter musings and then as published columns. There's been so many good pieces written already, but what many sports journalists and fans of sports journalism are waiting to eventually read is the announced earlier this year book from Joe Posnanski on Paterno and this season (which of course nobody could have envisioned turning out like it has). Posnanski thus far has written two different blog posts on the scandal, first Darkness and then

Curiously Short Posts and I doubt he knows what his eventual book on Paterno will contain, but I have to imagine it's going to be an enthralling read. Just a guess of course, but it may well be heavy on the aforementioned duality of how a good person (which Paterno certainly seems to be) can do a bad thing (specifically, the limits to his actions taken when allegations were brought to him). Back to the subject of reporting and sports journalism... reading the columns and musings from good writers as this story has unfolded has gotten me thinking more about journalism and writing. To this end there's been three different pieces I've come across lately about the profession that all stand out as interesting. First was an address given by Nate Silver to the Columbia School of Journalism. Silver founded the political blog FiveThirtyEight

and in his speech imparts both his background and valuable career lessons for someone about to enter the field of journalism. Second was a series of tweets from Tommy Tomlinson about an Ira Glass speaking event. I've also been at a live event by the This American Life creator and concur that Glass is a definite master storyteller. Third was a Tumblr site We Are Journalists I just came across today. Very interesting vignettes from people in the profession working to chase down and report well on stories... including things like the horrible crimes and subsequent inaction (and now action) out of Penn State.

Brandon Sneed Writing – posted 10/22/2011

Having followed him on twitter for a while now, I've been seeing more and more interesting content lately from journalist Brandon Sneed. Previously I had posted on his interview with newly published in Sports Illustrated writer Tommy Tomlinson and now Sneed has made the same author jump to national magazine (well, least first national magazine piece I've come across). The October 2011 issue of ESPN the Magazine has Sneed's story Nobody walks alone on former NBA player Mike Williams and his near-fatal injury and learning to walk again. It's an excellent piece of unfairness, struggle, courage and determination (yep, those oft seem to travel in a pack). What really strikes me about Sneed, though, is the process of writing posting he's done on his site http://www.brandonsneed.com/. Love me some good content on the topic of writing... as evidenced by my month-ago post Five for Writing Posts from Son of a Bold Venture Blog. Sneed has certainly reached a level of success (published in ESPN the Mag at a young age), but he seems really grounded around the process and work required. To this point was his blog post The Giant in the Wheelchair III: It's Out. It's REALLY Out about the ESPN piece and since then he's done three insightful posts on the writing process: Making It As A Writer: Remember, It's All Relative, Progress & Why You Should Write A Book : Really cool content in all of these.

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Tommy Tomlinson Writing - for ESPN, GoodCall and Personal Blog – posted 9/6/2011

In a veritable onslaught of Tommy Tomlinson content, today there was a piece of his posted at ESPN.com and interview with him on a new sports website. Now, lest this onslaught comment be seen as sarcastic, it really did seem remarkable to see tonight via twitter links to a Tomlinson ESPN story and interview about another he did for Sports Illustrated: Pretty heady publications for a guy who is an excellent writer that seems to just now have his work getting national publication. Tomlinson penned for ESPN "How we find healing through sports" on sports and what games mean and can provide. The commentary revolves around 9/11 and the upcoming 10 year anniversary and really does a good job conveying the impact of sports as well as where that impact stops in a larger context. It's really well done and insightful work... profound, but with that profundity not oversold. The interview on a new website was done by Brandon Sneed for GoodCall and centers on the piece "Something Went Very Wrong At Toomer's Corner" that Tomlinson did for Sports Illustrated. It was a tremendously interesting interview that covered not only how the story was written, but how the assignment (his first for SI) came about. Sneed obviously shared the same curiosity I did after reading what was an excellent piece... I'm just thankful that he and Tomlinson got the story out (you know, on the Interweb Superhighway Tubes). While on this whole Tommy Tomlison kick (if posting on and linking to a piece by and interview with him is a kick), it seemed apropos to note to a very cool (and short) blog post by him from last month. "Waaaaaaaay Overdue" was on an overdue library book, but (not surprisingly given how boring that sounds) also much more. Routines, habits, inertia, breaking out of a seemingly intractable state... these are the themes covered well by Tomlison here. True, it's easier said than done, but as they say... "If it was easy, everyone would do it."

Five for Writing Posts from Son of a Bold Venture Blog – posted 8/19/2011

I first mentioned it in a Feb 2011 blog post and lately have thought more about the Five for Writing Series done by Chris Jones on his Son of a Bold Venture blog. Concept as introduced in this blog post by Jones is five questions he e-mails to a writer and then their responses... with the writers covered (and each Series post) hyperlinked below: 1. Gene Weingarten - a Washington Post columnist and humor writer... winner of two Pulitzer prizes for feature writing. Notes the absolute need to get correct the details of what's been written. 2. Wright Thompson - an ESPN website writer who also provides some excellent and heavy on sentiment work for the ESPN/Bill Simmons site Grantland. Provided both links to some of his past work and content about the writing process and concept of becoming interested in a topic, hopping on a plane and go learn about it, and then recording its details in print. Thompson also covers his seeming penchant for producing first person writing (reminds me J.R. Moehringer in this regard). 3. Jeff Pearlman - columnist for the Sports Illustrated website and author of multiple books about famous teams or athletes: Dallas Cowboys, New York Mets, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and now Walter Payton. Blog post has some solid writing process stuff both in relation to physical act of writing (where it works for Pearlman) and what type of book subject is (and isn't) going to attract readers. 4. Charles P. Pierce - highly esteemed Esquire and Boston Globe writer: Makes some interesting points in this post about writing the perfect words to describe something. Somewhat related to this, the post also had some good content on the power of language and rhetoric (which Pierce then expands on really well in this Esquire piece). 5. Glenn Stout - editor of the Best

American Sports Writing series and himself a book author. Post contains Stout's mention of the unequivocal

need for a writer to tell a story with confidence and in a manner that doesn't let the reader's attention wane. Also of interest from Stout was his writing about words as his job... not that he doesn't enjoy it, but he's got to work to get paid. Also linked to this piece was an SI story "Heavyweight Championship of the Word" by Jeff MacGregor on the writer W.C. Heinz. 6. Gregg Doyel - CBS Sports columnist. Nothing specifically stood out from Doyel's responses to the Five for Writing questions, but as Jones writes, he deserves definite credit for the incredibly fast turn-around answers provided to the questions posed. 7. Drew Magary - writer for the websites Deadspin and Kissing Suzie Kolber... now author of the novel The

Postmortal. Almost counter to some of the other Five for Writing authors who wrote about the power of

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financial gain for the writer. As part of this is his commentary about viewing a novel as being a promising

track to wealth given the (free) availability online of so much sports commentary or humor writing out there. Not to forget the blog host himself, there was a similar Q&A blog post done with Jones by the

aforementioned Jeff Pearlman... this time on Pearlman's blog. Big take-away from this piece was late in the Q&A how Jones described the experience of writing in the flow... just as Charlie Pierce's above noted description of writing the perfect words.

Wright Thompson Pieces from Grantland – posted 8/6/2011

Some remarkable pieces I've seen recently by Wright Thompson of ESPN and Grantland. Thompson is I guy whose I first heard mention of in this Five for Writing feature with his responses to writing process questions posted by Esquire writer Chris Jones on his Son of a Bold Venture blog. A few months after that Feb 2011 interview, I came across the lengthy ESPN Outside the Lines story "Deadly Games" on the Macacos slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pretty remarkable piece whose subtitle tells the story of its content -

"In Rio, where the next Summer Olympics and World Cup will be held, nearby neighborhoods have become war zones." The writing I've seen lately by Thompson, though, was the trigger to post about and

link to him. For the ESPN/Bill Simmons website, Grantland, he's done a series of heartfelt and well written pieces about loss and remembrance. The last two pieces posted were "On Whiskey and Grease: A Yoknapatawpha Wake" and "On Whiskey and Grease: Drinking the last bottle of Jim Beam". Each is a really good blend (no booze pun intended) of the solid and the sentimental about someone‘s passing and how their lives are celebrated. Reading these stories then sent me back to looking in the Grantland archives (not that vast since the site is only a few months old) for other Thompson stories... two of which I recall having read and thinking "man, that's good writing." "On Whiskey and Grease: Pappy Van Winkle" (yep, more booze) was about the hard to find Pappy Van Winkle bourbon and then "Four Nights at Elaine's: The Last Will and Testament of a Great Saloon" about the heavily writer-frequented New York bar closing for good. Really good writing that brought to mind the piece "Last Call at Elaine's, ft. Kevin Van Valkenburg"

from the Son of a Bold Venture blog: Similar pieces from these young writers who were part of a group having their last night at Elaine's.

Sebastian Junger's "The Storm" for Outside Magazine – posted 7/26/2011

Recently came across "The Storm" by Sebastian Junger for Outside Magazine and found it to be extremely compelling writing. The piece was published in 1994 and became the basis for Junger's bestselling book (and subsequent movie) "The Perfect Storm". I've posted on Junger previously and after reading four of his books now enjoy both the work itself and reading pieces like this Outside Magazine interview that get into how he became a writer. Additionally, Junger makes a point in the interview that I completely agree with... people who do dangerous stuff are fascinating. Whether it‘s someone Junger writes about (including himself) or people written about by Susan Casey (also in relation to the ocean and giant waves) there's something interesting about those who live with such risk. Was an Excellent story from Outside for both those who have and haven't seen his book that it's based on (and anyone who hasn't had a chance to read the book would likely want to after this story).

Pieces on Becoming a Writer – posted 7/17/2011

One thing terribly fascinating to me is how someone became a writer... this being why I was so riveted by the J.R. Moehringer memoir The Tender Bar (which I reviewed here). Recently I've come across a few interesting pieces that traffic in this topic. I've posted on Moehringer a few times now and maybe a month ago received an e-mail from someone good enough to give me links to a bunch of us work I hadn't seen before. As part of this collection, I enjoyed quite a bit his 2007 Denver Magazine feature "Ballad for a Plain Man" on singer/songwriter Jeff Finlin, but was most struck by a shorter Moehringer piece about him at the Denver Rocky Mountain News. Titled "Yesterday's News", it's interesting and personal writing about becoming a writer... practically picking up right where The Tender Bar left as a writing memoir. Some more

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recent stuff on becoming a writer came courtesy of a "Q&A with Kevin Van Valkenburg" on the I Hate JJ Redick blog covering Baltimore sports. Van Valkenburg writes for the Baltimore Sun and I've enjoyed his work since learning about it from a Chris Jones blog post and now following him on Twitter. The first question posed to him is how he became a writer and got to his current job and maybe it's just me, but it was terribly interesting reading the answer provided. Final piece lately around becoming a writer isn't so much on one person's path, but rather around a genre of writing. From an issue of Time Magazine a few weeks ago came a piece by Lev Grossman on Fan Fiction titled "The Boy Who Lived Forever". Fan fiction is the concept of writing story extensions for one's own amusement (many posted to the site FanFiction.Net) and while there may be more unpaid stories on Harry Potter than any other character or series, it could be done for the work of virtually any author. Interesting genre of writing that I hadn't heard about before, but makes sense as people are simply doing something they enjoy based on... yep, something they enjoy. As someone who loves both reading and (hopefully) producing good writing, it's fascinating this whole culture of both paid and unpaid work out there.

What & Who I Like to Read - and Where I Find It – posted 7/9/2011

A topic kicking around in my head lately and discussed with a few different people is what and who I like to read. It's definitely something previously considered... with over a year ago my post on topics of interest to read and write about and then favorite authors as well as the more recent post on books from said authors. So, to revisit the topic and add a few updates... Type of writing enjoyed – I like good non-fiction, particularly that with some emotional heft, and a balance between sentiment and reporting. It's tough to pull off, but also done by some good writers out here. Where I find it – Much of the writing posted on and linked to here came from print magazines (with publishing there requiring that the pieces have made it through the filter of the publication), with my having subscriptions to the following magazines: Sports Illustrated, Businessweek, Esquire, Fast Company, Time. There may well be other great magazines out there I should subscribe to, but each of these serves as a source of good articles and mention of books to read. Also, I've written about it before, but Twitter can be an excellent source of links to both good feature writing and non-fiction books. Who I liked to read – it was only a few months ago I did the aforementioned post on books from authors, but there are a couple of additions both in terms of writers I look for: Tommy

Tomlinson, Kevin Van Valkenburg, Jeff MacGregor, Jeff Jarvis, Michael Lewis, Eric Weiner and J.R. Moehringer.

Oregon Quarterly Feature on YA Novelist Gayle Forman – posted 6/17/2011

Pretty compelling piece of writing from the summer 2011 issue of Oregon Quarterly: The Magazine of the University of Oregon. Written by 1995 Oregon grad Kimber Williams, "Books to Write" is about Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay, the 1999 Young Adult bestselling novel. It's a solid profile by Williams and provides a view of Forman's life and how a tragic life experience led to writing the book. It's pretty profound stuff and gives a good sense of Forman's life and experience as a novelist: Kind of inspiring.

Waiting on Writing: Good Authors - Good Books – posted 5/16/2011

While reading the just released In the Garden of Beasts from Erik Larson, it got me thinking about how long it takes to write good non-fiction... and when some of my favorite non-fiction authors might have new work. A good starting off point for this inquiry is my Nov 2009 post Blog Topics List: Redux Part Duex... Stuff of Interest & Authors Enjoyed, with focus on the people noted as book authors (and a few more added). Erik Larson: Writes historical content with lots of detail and narrative around events in time; Published

Thunderstruck Sept 2007 and then In the Garden of Beasts May 2011 - 3 1/2 years apart. Jeff Jarvis: Writes on business topics and published What Would Google Do? Jan 2009. New book Public Parts scheduled for Sept 2011 release some 2 1/2 years later. Susan Casey: writes sports-related with a bent towards adventure prose. Penned The Devil's Teeth May 2006 (which I felt like put me in an elite club for having read) and then published 4 1/2 years later in May 2010 her bestselling The Wave. Michael Lewis:

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writes books that sell lots and lots of copies on a variety of topics... from High Finance to Parenthood to Major League Baseball. Last published The Big Short in Mar 2010 and has Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World scheduled for Oct 2011 release. While this does sound to be a follow up to The Big Short, it is interesting to see that release would be only a year and a half after it. Eric Weiner: travel writer who released The Geography of Bliss Jan 2008. Not sure when his next book will be out, but looking forward to it after 3 plus years now. J.R. Moehringer: someone I've come across more recently and just last year read his 2006 memoir The Tender Bar. Last book was the co-written with Andre Agassi biography Open, published Dec 2009. Bill Bryson - prolific travel writer who last did At Home in Oct 2010. Other authors who I look forward to seeing their next books (hyperlinks to past work) include S.L. Price, Chris Jones,

Austin Murphy, John Grogan and David Von Drehle. The point of all this... there's great non-fiction work out there, but it can take a while to write a new book. As evidence of this, the excellent Laura Hillenbrand book Unbroken, released in Nov 2010 eight years after she published Seabiscuit.

Words, Writing & Windmill Tilting... – posted 5/5/2011

I've written about it a few times here, but lots of great stuff on of the Chris Jones blog Son of a Bold Venture. Content ranges from the tactical with writers answering questions on their craft to profound with missives on aspiring writers (or really aspiring anyones) tilting at windmills as they try to realize career goals. The last two posts at Son of a Bold Venture trafficked more towards windmill tilting with "Lydia Could" about pursuing a Journalism degree in spite of the profession's career arc (much less arcy these days) and then "The Chattanooga Fix" about the small chance of success in writing a book measured against required time and effort. Rather than leaning towards the doom and gloom, though, me thinks these posts both inspire based on what I take as the directive that... you try, you may or may not succeed, but you try. If you know what you want, great... you try to do that. If you don't know, but have an idea... you try around your idea and see where that takes you. If you have no idea, you scattershot about at different things and hopefully find something of import to you. Either way... yep, you try. If these two most recent Son of a Bold Venture posts were about... duh, trying, there were a few prior to that on a different topic I feel strongly about, words. "A Parting Glass" featured a Charles P. Pierce written eulogy on fellow writer Clif Garboden. It was simply very cool reading about how someone loved what they did, and that thing being the writing of words on a page. One other Jones missive from the past month that struck me around this topic, but it really wasn't his writing in the post that hit me, but who he wrote about... and then a reader posted blog comment. "Opening Acts" begins with a reprinting of a J.R. Moehringer magazine piece, which I found of note as Moehringer's memoir The Tender Bar seems a close relative (if not ancestor) of what Son of a Bold Venture is all about. Both on writers, writing, words; all things I feel of import. In relation to this specific post, though, what I keep thinking about is actually a comment from another reader of it. Valerie said... I have let the busyness of life crowd out the time and love I once had for reading. As a bureaucrat my own writing is dry and dull (but sometimes artful in its own way). Your posts are drawing me back. I must go out and buy something other than a newspaper to read right away. I need to find time again to slowly savor and enjoy someone else' art of telling a story. I love it. I enjoy the blog from Jones in

part because it's about writers and writing as an act, but it was great to see someone make mention of writing and words as a something to consume. Whether I'm writing them or simply reading them from someone else... I love words organized on page in a meaningful way (note the heading of this blog) and it's cool to read other people say much the same thing.

John Hyduk Essay from Esquire – posted 5/1/2011

Interesting piece of writing from the May 2011 issue of Esquire Magazine: Written by John Hyduk, "The Loading Dock Manifesto" is an account of the author's job for a beverage distributor along with past work experiences. Its solid writing that relates what it's like to have something far removed from a white collar career and life. With myself as a reader having said white collar circumstances, it‘s interesting reading about someone in a completely different orbit (which is of course is what can happen through reading). In

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addition to the story, I also found myself ruminating on the author himself. Here's a guy who can definitely write, is published in Esquire (with a byline note made of occasional publishing in Ohio and Cleveland magazines), but works on a loading dock. I'm interested in this idea of a guy with writing talent who doesn't actually write as his full time job. Does he want to write for a living, but can't catch a break? Is his stuff simply not good enough (though, this piece certainly is solid)? Is he not able to write as compelling prose if not about his life? Or, is he simply satisfied with his life and work (including both the loading dock and writing) and doesn't want to change? I certainly can't say, but (without knowing there is any sad tale there) you gotta allow for the possibility that this is someone with a job that meets his needs and a writing interest that he's able to do well on the side... and he's good with that: If that's the case, then kudos to Hyduk for carving out something that works for him. All conjecture here of course, but me thinks interesting things to ruminate on, and an interesting essay to read. Two additional pieces of writing from this issue of Esquire that while they didn't strike me as much as that from Hyduk, I found of note. Financial writer Ken Kurson did "Let Them Eat iPads" on his prediction of coming inflation... and ways to have the possibility guide one's investing. Definitely seems like there's something to his premise as higher prices on a variety of goods and services appears to be more and more widespread. "Walking the Border" is a feature from Luke Dittrich that chronicles the first part of his solo journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The writing wasn't bad by any means, but what stood out to me was this idea of taking on a challenge. The endeavor of course doesn't have to be walking the US-Mexico border, but that's something to be said for taking on a task whose outcome isn't certain.

Profound Thoughts on Writing - from Chris Jones Blog – posted 4/10/2011

I've written on it previously, but some really interesting stuff on writing (and the process of) at the Son of a Bold Venture blog from Esquire writer Chris Jones. Since the above mentioned last post I wrote, what's really resonated with me from the blog has been the content written around something I'll call "becoming a writer, and then a great one". HOW I GOT MY JOB (PART I) & FEAR by Chris Jones on his blog... on his perspective around the struggle to get the right words on the page. Really interesting stuff from both of these posts (and I'd say most of the posts and subsequent comments on this blog). Where me thinks the ante was upped was with a still ongoing discussion that started with the Son of a Bold Venture post LOSING'S REWARD... about the author's disappointment at not getting award recognition for an Esquire feature on Roger Ebert. This launched a slew of interesting post comments both for and against said disappointment. People's commentary delved into subjects ranging from motivation to validation and took the various forms of concurrence, honest disagreement and snarkiness (it is the Internet, after all). In the ―disagreement‖ category, Esquire writer Scott Raab posted a note which linked to his interesting and well written Try Selling Shoes blog post. Gist of both his post comment and blog post was that if you're doing the work you want to for a living, you shouldn't complain... at least not to people outside of your sphere who may actually aspire to your relative level. Jones wrote I felt reasoned comment responses (including to Raab) and followed up with the post THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH. This missive contained more of his thoughts on validation of writing, but also had something else. While not to discount the original (and still important) topic of what makes a writer feel recognized, it seems to me infinitely more valuable in a discussion of writing to look at what makes a writer great. On this producing of great work subject, Jones wrote of desperately wanting something and desperately working towards it. This concept of going all in is me thinks what makes someone great at a chosen profession. Howard Stern talked about it as recently as last week in relation to radio and now Jones references it in relation to writing... it's a dedication approaching manic level need for success. Granted, this whole discussion started around the topic of what signifies success, and the role award winning plays in that, but to me... this thing of what it takes to reach whatever level might have the shiny baubles of "success" (whether they be jobs, awards, or simply great prose), that's the big rock there.

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Assembling New David Foster Wallace Book - From Time Magazine – posted 4/5/2011

Interesting piece from the latest issue of Time Magazine in "Unfinished Business" by Lev Grossman... about

"The Pale King", David Foster Wallace's posthumously published novel: What struck me wasn't necessarily writing about the book itself, but rather the compilation of the work. As I've been reading about (and

posting on) the process of writing lately, one thing that's come out repeatedly is the import of editing in the process. This (presumably) final work from Wallace presents a remarkable example of that import with Grossman's description of how the book came together. After Wallace's passing, reams of pages were found with scattered chapters, notes, vignettes and story fragments... and out of this, the book was assembled. Over the course of two years, longtime Wallace editor Michael Pietsch pored over the work and through an exercise in "extreme editing", made what he felt were the best decisions possible about how it should all fit together into a narrative. This endeavor by Pietsch (and him winding up with the finished product as described by Grossman) is remarkable to me from the perspective of how both

incredibly creative and highly process oriented it must have been. Now, this of course wasn't editing under normal circumstances, but maybe it is a statement on what editing can be.

Frequent Blog Tag: "Writing" – posted 4/3/2011

After early last month doing a post about blog tags used, I a few weeks back posted "Frequent Blog Tags: "Customer Service", "Social Media" & "Work" to highlight the more "about or pertaining to business" topics often written about and tagged here. Looking further at this concept of things frequently posted on... another process/topic tag oft used here is "Writing". Out of these 15 posts I've done with this a tag, three different categories seem to emerge as "the point of what I've getting at" with this tag (categorization of these not a scientific process, but little on this blog is): Posts about the writing process - Included is this category is both my own ramblings and those of some of my favorite writers (i.e. Chris Jones, Joe

Posnanski, Eric Weiner, Roger Ebert, J.R. Moehringer). Not coincidentally, many of these guys have blogs or twitter accounts that give them an avenue to "write about writing". Posts about words and how great they can be - This is after all the point of this blog (see: blog heading just below the title) and often times the aforementioned writers get into words and their import at the same time they write about putting them down on a page. Also included are my own ruminations (it is my blog, after all) on what words placed together into meaningful order can do. Also there are posts about writing as an end in itself or career: A two part concept... with one being the act of writing getting accomplished and the other actually getting paid for it. Wisdom I've gathered (and linked to) is that to become a writer as an end to itself, you just... you know, write. This act done and then repeatedly done again more than anything else is a writer someone makes. Now, if only things were as clear cut around how to then go from being a writer putting words on page for its own sake to one doing it for a living. That said, those people putting in the effort to write, but who haven't yet made it a career should take heart. Without first "writing for the sake of writing", the making it a career part wouldn't stand a chance (not to mention you wouldn't have the writing for writing's sake thing). It‘s about small victories one at a time.

Son of a Bold Venture Blog – posted 2/19/2011

This isn't the first post I've done on it, but big fan am I of the blog Son of a Bold Venture from Esquire writer Chris Jones. In my aforementioned first missive, I wrote of my excitement about a blog on the subject of words and writing and have found it's thus far completely met my expectations. It may be odd that a blog heavily about journalism could resonate with me so much, but when you get down to it... print journalism is about words and their meaning (and I like words and their meaning a lot). Two posts in particular

resonated with me thus far... both on the topic of writing as a passion/career choice. Lester's Dilemma

addressed the heartache and struggle faced by many writers and Lara Logan's Math the actual physical danger journalism can pose... as horrifically endured by a female CBS correspondent in Egypt. Also, one series of postings I'm completely drawn to as a concept is Five for Writing... Jones e-mail interviews with other writers take on their craft. Last thing to mention is the idea of a community interested in writing. The

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posts usually have 10 t0 30 different comments... with many featuring insightful takes from people both known (Charles P. Pierce) and new to me (Brandon Sneed). I've had the thought and made mention on this blog previously of wanting my writing to become more part of a community, and perhaps this is jumping off point. In summary, I like words, like to write stuff and love the idea of a blog about (well, close enough about) this same words and their arranging in a meaningful order.

New Blog about Writing & Words from Chris Jones – posted 2/3/2011

Since I do a goodly amount of blathering on about words and what they mean, I was very (did I mention very?) interested to learn of a new blog from Chris Jones (one of my favorite writers) that he describes as being "about writing and words." On the Blogger network (ok, since I've now seen this blog and the one from Joe Posnanski on blogger, I'll remain on and not move to TypePad); Son of a Bold Venture features a hodgepodge of writing from Jones... with almost if not all of the posts thus far on the subject of Writing. His

first post provides both some short back story around becoming a writer (which frankly, made me want to hear the long back story) and impetus behind the blog. With the second post a day later being on another of my favorite writers, the aforementioned Joe Posnanski, I was sold as a reader. Well, I would have been into it anyways, but you get the point. I posted a comment to this second blog entry with a portion of it being the following: Joe Posnanski for me hits on multiple elements of good writing. It's thorough, conveys a

message and is emotional... but without dropping into the realm of sentimental just for the sake of sentiment (if that makes sense as an accolade). Now, I'm not going to follow the traditional path that my blog has

taken of reposting or linking to good writing and saying why it's good since that would be, you know, my commenting on my own writing and saying why I like it. What I will do though, is say that I love this idea of what makes good writing good. Me thinks it's especially a trick to come up with good writing of the more heartfelt variety (which I tend to lean towards rather than away from) because if not done well, it just becomes ooshy-gushy. The writers I most enjoy and seek out stuff from (Posnanski, Jones, S.L. Price, David Von Drehle, and Austin Murphy when he's not doing straight game reporting) all seem to accomplish this feat of solid and thorough writing that also has heart. So, back to the point (and title) of this post... a blog on writing by a guy who writes in a fashion that I admire, its Word Gold to me.

Joe Posnanski on Words – posted 1/30/2011

I like words. Yea... that's a highly simplistic statement to make, but a very material one as it's the whole point of this blog. From the front page, Blog is all about words because... they matter, they influence, they

entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page in a meaningful order, they acquire permanence. While the majority of posts here are done as vehicles linking to great writing, I've also done a

handful of entries on the creation of said writing (posts having the blog label "writing" and the most recent linked to here). This being said, I felt a bit like kid in a candy store upon seeing a blog post on writing from one of my favorite writers. "The Most Beautiful Word" by Joe Posnanski takes the oft-asked question of how he became a writer and answers it by telling a story about his youth, parents, and how he was raised. Specifically, Posnanski makes reference to his mother asking him "do you know what word is beautiful?" Posnanski wrote of this question's impact on an elementary school aged kid, "Something kind of clicked

with me, I think; it was a whole other way of looking at words. And over time I would start to think about that, how words sound together, how the pacing of language and how the velocity and tempo can create layers of meaning, the staggering power of the simplest words." Hey, that's kind of how I describe words

and why I like them! On the subjects: of Posnanski writing, mothers, and words organized into meaningful prose was a feature on Tony Pena... originally written in 2003 and then linked to after Pena's mother passed away last week.

Piece on Chris Jones - Writer Guy – posted 12/24/2010

Found on twitter something very cool, an in-depth piece on one my favorite writers, Chris Jones (with link to said twitter feed). From the Ryerson Review of Journalism, "Not All Smurfs and Sunshine" has some history

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on the guy and his writing career, but most interesting to me... gets into the whole approach to the craft of writing (with here and here being recent posts on the topic). It seems a well written story on Jones and underscores that writing is hard work, but for those who are talented, work really hard at it, work hard at getting found, and are lucky enough to actually succeed at efforts to be found, a living can be scratched out. Inspiring stuff to be sure, but I guess that's the point... things aren't always easy, but in the words of the immortal Jerry Seinfeld, "you just keep showing up." I've made this point a number of times on this blog, but it's not always going to be easy, and when it's not, you do it anyways... and consider yourself blessed during the times that you're flowing and it is easy. Wisdom taken (maybe crowbarred by me the reader, but that's ok... taken nonetheless) from the piece and links to a ton of Jones writing... that's some good stuff there, me thinks.

Elizabeth Edwards Passing & Not Giving Up – posted 12/13/2010

Two different things that I really want to meld together here into one coherent blog post. Thing A - the passing of Elizabeth Edwards. Roughly a week ago, the estranged wife of Presidential want to-be and dirt bag-is John Edwards succumbed in her fight with cancer. In May of last year I linked to and posted on an

excerpt from her book and found myself pretty captivated by how she reacted to the hand she was dealt. Just after her death, I came across "Elizabeth Edwards Was the Right Kind of Woman" by Chris Jones on his Esquire blog. Good short writing, but in terms of Edwards herself... geesh, that's a rough go of it she had. Thing B - don't give up. I found out about the Jones story on Edwards' passing from his twitter feed... which later had the following two posts: "Elizabeth Edwards in Allendale came from a story I quit halfway

through. Worst move of my career. Don't quit until the story quits on you. Seriously, I almost left the writing biz that week in South Carolina: In tears with my editor. Fuck me. Game could have changed right there."

Intent isn't to say that Edwards‘s terminal cancer (and other horrific things she faced) is the same as Jones struggling with a story, but I also don't think it trite to say they both feature the concept of not giving up. In terms the writing thing... I've many a time struggled to get something on page and tried to follow the maxim of... you set a writing goal, slog away, and get something down that reaches your goal. The inspired times are great, but they're not always there and it's just as if not more important to carry on without inspiration around: My soliloquy.

Eric Weiner Wisdom & Musings – posted 11/30/2010

One of the first posts to this blog was on the excellent Eric Weiner book "The Geography of Bliss" and after following him on Twitter for a while now I gotta say... the guy has some interesting things to say. Point of this post is to repeat some of his said Twitter-posted insight from the last six months... From today, Nov 30 - link to a TED talk by Weiner! Nov 29 - "Life is too short for pettiness or bad coffee." Nov 13 - "Death is the Universe's way of making sure we pay attention." Nov 3 - "The only thing worse than writing is not

writing." Nov 2 - "Most things in life get easier with practice. Unfortunately, writing is not one of them." Oct 21 - '"A writer is person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." --Thomas Mann. Amen.' Jul 22 - "Writing is the art of taming your demons by naming them. That's why I've yet to meet a sane writer worth reading. They have no demons." Jul 15 - "Silence may be golden but so is sound. We need the ambient chatter of others to cushion our own churning minds. That's why cafes thrive."

Jul 15 - "Never analyze enthusiasm. It's a sure way to kill it." Ok, now that I've copied my favorite Twitter missives from Weiner, I know why I like said missives so much... If not obvious already, I've put the one-word clue as to why in italics above.

Writers Write... And Not Always Well – posted 9/22/2010

After an hour or so ago making in this post the comment "my blog is about writing", it got me to thinking about the idea of writing words and how it's done. I know I like both reading and writing words organized well on a page and I've certainly written about that... with posts on the "Permanence of Words" and "How We Value and Entertain Ourselves" as examples. What I don't think I've written as much about is the

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process of getting said words on a page organized well. S'hard stuff... this writing thing. Well, not always hard, but those fits of inspiration are oft mere exceptions to the rule of writing as a slog. I suppose that's ok, though. There's contemporary writers that do great work (and I've written about them many times including

in this post), but I'd be willing to bet dollars for doughnuts that these writer types as well as the "all-time greats" like Fitzgerald, Rand, Twain and Lee (Harper, that is) often weren't writing great prose when they wrote, but just kept at it. Basically following the principle of "if you keep doing something long enough, you're eventually going to get good at it" (labeled the "10,000 hour rule" by Malcolm Gladwell in

"Outliers"). Therein lies the trick, me think (and this is about writing, but one could apply the idea below elsewhere)... When you're inspired, motivated and creative... you write, you do great work. However, when you're not inspired, not motivated and not creative... you still write, you do work. Maybe through the act of the work it'll become great, but even if it doesn't, you're still being a writer, and by acting as one, you'll eventually become an even better writer.

How We Value Things & Entertain Ourselves - Roger Ebert on Huck Finn vs a Great Video Game – posted 7/25/2010

A few weeks ago, I did a post on reading which made mention of something that I think deserves more attention... that being a Roger Ebert blog entry on Huck Finn vs video games. Ebert's piece on his Chicago Sun-Times blog stems from him posing to readers the question "which of these would you value more? (A) A great video game or (B) "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain." The tally at the time that his blog post was written was 13,823 to 8,088 in favor of video games (or 63% to 37%). Ebert writes of the unscientific and open to interpretation nature of his question, but the results (and Ebert's take on them) are still very

interesting and certainly worth a read. As I think about the general popular opinion, it reminds me of a "Permanence of Words" blog post I did and how Ebert's poll results show that everyone has their thing (or things). For my own personal "thing", younger me (not even that much younger) would have put sports above all other non-family things, but I now view my favorite sports more as entertainment and less as something of great import (due in large part to now having children, me thinks). At the same time that sports has moved down the list, words (both the reading and particularly writing of them) have moved up. In many ways, my life would be easier if that weren't the case as I'd have available as free time that which I spend now on reading and writing... and I'd also get rid of that persistent nagging feeling I put upon myself of thinking I should spend more time writing. However, we all choose what dragons we want to slay, and as the aforementioned "Permanence of Words" post details, I've at least for the time begin (and presumably going forward) chosen mine. Going back to the Ebert piece, it's a fascinating question to think about the "absolute value" of something. Is a great book such as Twain's of more value than a great video game? My personal answer is yes, but what Ebert raises for consideration is whether a comparison such as this can be definitively answered in any context other than each person's individual view.

Reading - It's the Right Thing to Do – 7/7/2010

A topic I've had bouncing around in my head for a bit now is that of good books... and why to read them. This follows up on both my "Permanence of Words" post about words and what I like about them and

"Words Written Down - The School Days" piece about writing. Main difference between those and this is I want to write here about reading. I recall from his excellent book "On Writing", bestselling author Stephen King extolling the virtues of reading for any writer. He was referring I believe to fiction writers, but a non-fiction writer would me thinks have even more of a need to be well read. If you're writing about actual things (i.e. non-fiction), helps to actually know something about said things. Through reading, you're going to be able to both envelop yourself in a story (whether real or fictional) and have time to draw your own conclusions and thoughts on it. If you compare reading to say, watching a movie... the experience of film I believe just isn't as immersive and as a result, the viewer has less opportunity for take-away than the reader. This import of reading established, I think the question becomes what to read. There's obviously a lot of options ranging from novels and non-fiction books (and me thinks both type of books valuable) to

Words Written Down Book