As a longtime wake-in-the-night insomniac, I have become obsessed these past few hectic months with the edge of my bedroom window. Not the whole window, just the right vertical strip that I can see from behind the blackout curtains when I’m lying in bed. This slip of window has become my gauge. No light: too…… Continue reading The light at the window
Tag: writing process
The good of your writing
“The world did not say to her as it said to them, Write if you choose; it makes no difference to me. The world said with a guffaw, Write? What’s the good of your writing?” – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own We writers sure like quotes, eh? Tacked up on our bulletin boards,…… Continue reading The good of your writing
The thunder of the ground sea, or what’s under the boat
One of my favorite things about rereading/reteaching stories is that no matter how well I think I know a work, I always unearth new intriguing bits. This past spring when I taught Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I zeroed in on how Shelley describes the breaking up of the frozen northern ocean where Walton and Victor become…… Continue reading The thunder of the ground sea, or what’s under the boat
Unspooling, and the story of now
Of late, I have the word unspooling unspooling in my head. It occurs to me as I type that perhaps this longtime obsessive habit of hearing words, bits of sentences, and lines from stories in my inner ear, is, um, not normal. Is this one of the dangers of reading that “they” warn about? Is…… Continue reading Unspooling, and the story of now
The heart, ‘that bloody motor’
I’ve been wanting to sit down here in Blogsville and compose a new entry to keep my writing engine warm in what has so far been the frozen tundra of 2014, but I’ve been doing the proverbial spinning in my chair. Yesterday I started an entry about time and compression in fiction, which I’m wrestling…… Continue reading The heart, ‘that bloody motor’
Resolution redux
Like a kajillion others out there on the planet, I sat down today thinking about New Year’s resolutions: the (in)famous list of things we optimistically hammer out about what we will or won’t do in the coming new year and then give up on around, oh, the Ides of March. Pretty straightforward, these resolutions, right?…… Continue reading Resolution redux
Letter to a Young Self
Dear Little Brynnie, It’s been a letter-y semester in my classes this fall as students try forms as a means of storytelling and essay-writing. I thought I’d give it a shot, too, because the truth is, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Mom just turned seventy a couple of weeks ago, which meant…… Continue reading Letter to a Young Self
Lengthen or shorten here
Of late, I find myself thinking about sewing patterns: those brown-tissue sheets with dotted and forked lines meant for making clothes that look for all the world like a map of an alien land. My memories of these go back to around the Pleistocene Age, aka Pre-Internet Age, when we had to go to the…… Continue reading Lengthen or shorten here
Staying inside
Mercy. It’s grown a bit cobwebby here at U-Leaves HQ. I think I just saw something scuttle under the floorboards. Apologies to the spammers who keep landing on the same old posts. I know that you are awaiting more of my “extreme informational posts that exceed great influence.” I appreciate the “A+ for simply excellence…… Continue reading Staying inside
Re-Vision
I’m at the Penland School of Craft in the mountains of North Carolina; the incomparable TW is an instructor here right now, teaching a letterpress class, and I got to tag along. If you’re a visual artist, this is one of the best places in the country to study and practice. I am astonished by…… Continue reading Re-Vision
Bryn Chancellor 