Draft: Great Resource for Writers

The New York Times has a wonderful on-going feature titled Draft on their website. My current favorite is a series written by Constance Hale.

Her most recent posts have included the following titles: Desperately Seeking Synonyms, Make-or-Break Verbs, The Pleasures and Perils of the Passive, and Sentences Crisp, Sassy, Stirring.


There's lots of meat offered for any writer to chew on, regardless of their background or level of experience.

We live in an amazing time...

Books are bread

I appreciated this interview with Marilynne Robinson, and in particular this story she shared:


"In 'Freedom of Thought,' you write that, although you can't say why fiction is necessary, it is indisputable that people crave it. When have you seen fiction meet a deep need within an individual reader?


"Well, often people meet you very briefly, and they say—"your book changed my life." I think writers get that comment pretty often. And it's very moving think that people do actually navigate by books, that books can have that kind of impact.


"Once I went to woman's prison in Pocatello, Idaho. I read some, and we talked some, and when I was leaving one of the women said, "Tell your students to write good books. They're all we live for." [Pauses.] You know? It's so easy to forget how important books are, partly because I'm someone like me: I'm practically drowning in books. My house is groaning with books. But then you realize that they're really bread to people who absolutely need then."