…which means you should really start working on your writing again!
Join us tonight at 9pm EST and until 10.30 EST for the coolest online literary crit session ever!
Y’all should know the drill by now, but if not, here goes:
Most of the HOOT staff (3 out of 4) will be sitting in a specially created chat room (which you can find by clicking http://www.hootreview.com/workshops) to talk about your writing! Bring a piece, 150-words or less and in any stage of the process, and let’s discuss! Or, if you don’t have a piece, help us work through others’ pieces!
Why you should do this:
- you don’t have to go anywhere far away
- no one can see you squirm, so it’s low stress
- you can take or leave our commentary
- you get to see the sort of work we like to see/publish with HOOT
- it’s free!
If those things don’t convince you, you’re probably hopeless.
We hope to see you there!
—James
Filed under writing editing publishing critique poetry fiction nonfiction flash fiction
So in case you need one more reason to visit out HOOT chats on Wednesday night from 9-10.30 EST, here’s a testimony from 3labs, a frequent user, about how awesome we are:
“I just started writing poetry a few months ago, learning in on-line classes. I stumbled upon Hoot and their chat workshop just by chance as I was exploring the online world of poetry. I went to one a month ago—-and have not missed one since! It’s a bit of free-for-all experience whether you are discussing another participant’s poem or sitting back and watching the group discussing yours. One of things that I found quite useful when my own work is being discussed is to be able to see points of critique that everyone seems to agree with and those in which there is disagreement. I must also say that the editors do a great job making it all work, leading it along and being primary sources of feedback. You do definitely get critiqued, but both with what does not work for folks as well as what does. Sometimes, the chat even goes to the point of brainstorming specific suggestions for solving problems that are seen. And folks are just funny sometimes too—I have chuckled a lot during the workshops. I must say that the editors of Hoot seem to, in part, be billing their efforts with their review as a place that will be friendly to writers. That has certainly been my experience. I am really grateful for this free online workshop and will continue to be back at it till they throw me out.”
Aw, thanks 3labs. This was charming and thoughtful!
COME VISIT USSSSSS.
—James
Filed under workshop writing editing poetry
bookaddict24-7:
“Now that you’ve decided what your character’s motivation is, it’s time to actually construct the vessel in which this purpose will reside. Just how do you build a person? By creating a life where none existed.”
-Dailywritingtips.com
Happy writing!
This is important in “micro-settings” too! Especially when you have less space to work with a character, that person needs to be that much more compelling and human!
—James
(via bookaddict24-7)
Filed under writing tips editing
Filed under owls snacks official business
You can see it here: http://www.hootreview.com/onlineissue11/ (don’t you love self-explanatory links?)
Things you have to look forward to:
- vegetables
- mice
- interesting vocabulary choices
If you’re reading this, chances are you are 1) not at work or 2) “working” on a side project that involves Tumblr— so hit us up and share your thoughts!
—James
Filed under literary poetry fiction flash fiction online
http://www.hootreview.com/printissue11/
And it’s pretty awesome. Don’t you think?
This week’s written piece, entitled “No More Astronauts,” is by Adam Loomis.
And yours truly (aka James) did the background art! Look at that, school-art teachers— I told you I’d be published someday.
—James
Filed under postcard flash fiction writing space art
newyorker:
Richard Brody remembers filmmaker Chris Marker, who died yesterday at age ninety-one: http://nyr.kr/Q72HeE
For Marker, memory isn’t passive; it’s an act of resistance—the edge that cuts a path into the future—and the effective work of memory is the very definition of art. Marker was a master of film editing—the part of the filmmaking process that Jean-Luc Godard, another master editor and memory-artist, defined as holding past, present, and future in one’s own hands—and the very possibility of remembering Marker demands a little editing, a splicing-in of excerpts from a surprising and crucial document.
(Image is a still from “La Jetée.”)
For anyone who is unfamiliar with his films/videos, check them out. I highly recommend “La Jetée,” and by that I mean you’ll probably need to see it 5 times before you understand anything about it. I still don’t, really.
—James
In case you’d forgotten that we do this, tonight (Wednesday night) is our usual online workshop! Bring a short piece (150 words or less) and your literary lenses and get ready to critique others’ work/have other people help you with yours!
Go to our website, http://www.hootreview.com/workshops/, and click on the link. We’ll be there from 9-10.30 EST, so we’d love to have you!
—James
Filed under writing workshop critique editing poetry flash fiction nonfiction
apoetreflects:
“I dislike the word ‘craft,’ when we talk of poetry. ’Craft’ suggest an inanimate object, as when we say a carpenter crafts a chest of drawers. But somebody’s already made the wood. So therefore, thinking of it … my idea is this: perhaps making the poem from the beginning involves three separate areas of experience. The first experience … is interior. When the poet realizes for the first time … when he touches for the first time, something far inside of him. It’s connected with what the ancients called The Mysteries, and it’s wrong to talk of it very much. Some poets have the experience very early. Wordsworth said that he had experienced it when he was seven or eight years old. And others when they’re fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Whitman, interestingly enough, did not have this experience until he was about thirty-seven years old. Before that, he was writing merely well-crafted newspaper verse. Then, when he touched another center inside—or when he—or you can use the metaphor of finding a well if you want—or you could talk of it as breaking through an ego wall but I don’t think it’s as useful—if any person comes near that experience he or she will never forget it the rest of his [or her] life. If he [or she] writes poetry it will come from that … You can talk of that as an experience. We could call this stage wholly interior.”
—Robert Bly, from his “Craft Interview” which was conducted in the Spring, 1972, and appears in Talking All Morning (University of Michigan Press, 1990), Poets on Poetry Series.
(via these-summer-nights-in-december)
![apoetreflects:
“I dislike the word ‘craft,’ when we talk of poetry. ’Craft’ suggest an inanimate object, as when we say a carpenter crafts a chest of drawers. But somebody’s already made the wood. So therefore, thinking of it … my idea is this: perhaps making the poem from the beginning involves three separate areas of experience. The first experience … is interior. When the poet realizes for the first time … when he touches for the first time, something far inside of him. It’s connected with what the ancients called The Mysteries, and it’s wrong to talk of it very much. Some poets have the experience very early. Wordsworth said that he had experienced it when he was seven or eight years old. And others when they’re fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Whitman, interestingly enough, did not have this experience until he was about thirty-seven years old. Before that, he was writing merely well-crafted newspaper verse. Then, when he touched another center inside—or when he—or you can use the metaphor of finding a well if you want—or you could talk of it as breaking through an ego wall but I don’t think it’s as useful—if any person comes near that experience he or she will never forget it the rest of his [or her] life. If he [or she] writes poetry it will come from that … You can talk of that as an experience. We could call this stage wholly interior.”
—Robert Bly, from his “Craft Interview” which was conducted in the Spring, 1972, and appears in Talking All Morning (University of Michigan Press, 1990), Poets on Poetry Series.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5zr5aHbJH1qe0r71o1_500.jpg)
