Six-Word Memoir Contest

Check in at Powell's Books to learn more about two books of six-word memoirs from writers famous and obscure. And then take a crack at writing your own.

In Powell staff words: "Simply post a comment containing your six-word autobiography below — a general summation, not limited to love or heartbreak. (But really, is it ever about anything else? Sigh.) We'll pick 10 finalists, to be featured on our blog, and submit them to the HarperCollins panel of judges, who will choose the soon-to-be-published author.

Deadline for submitting is midnight (PST), April 15, 2009. Click here for official contest rules."

Literary Terms--A Tangle

More amusing writing. This piece from Harper's (by way of someone else's blog) explains literary terms. I've long been ruefully amused by the term creative nonfiction.

That Whole Social Networking Thing

This piece about why Facebook is for old fogies (who has ever heard of young fogies?) made me laugh, partly because I am frikkin' stressed about the need to get aboard that whole social networking bandwagon so I can brand myself as a writer (doesn't that sound painful?), build a platform to improve my chances of selling a book, and grow my business (stupid expression; the best thing I grow is weeds. Who wants a weedy business?).

Picking Back Up, Take 2

What I was saying before I zoned out and hit Send was, when I'm reading a book, I can go on faith that "day in the life" approach will add up to something by the end, assuming the characters are interesting and the author writes well. In an article, I want to be clued in sooner. Seems counterintuitive, now that I put this down in black and white. That is, an article ends more quickly than a book, so the point will be apparently more quickly--but I, in truth, I want the point faster because I know the form is so much shorter than a book.

(I'm sorry I made you wait so long to finish a thought that now seems convoluted anyway.)

Picking Back Up

While I've been hiding from my blog responsibilities, I've started listening to Anne Tyler's book Digging to America (fiction). It is not a book with a burning question that pulls one through the story. At this point, it feels like an aimless, albeit pleasant, drive through the countryside.

The nonfiction equivalent would be a long "day in the life" piece. In a book, I can go on faith. In an article, I'd