Every creative operandi needs a modus — this one’s for you: We write, therefore we am. These are the prose and cons.
April 23rd marks William Shakespeare’s 423rd bday. For the sake of this chat, however, let’s just say it’s his 4-20th birthday. Because the question of the day is “Did Shakespeare smoke weed?” Doobie, or not doobie? That is the question asked by anthropologist Francis Thackeray.
I distinctly remember the bright day in front of the Fig, ten years ago, when an editor lamented my fate as a “generalist.” That is to say, I was a writer without a particular niche. I had breadth in many subjects but depth in none, just when the granularity of the web was just beginning…
The revolution will be serialized. As it’s always been. Much of episodic entertainment, from our favorite shows on Netflix or premium cable to the summertime superhero blockbusters, are issued in discrete elements that comprise a whole story. Comic books have long functioned in this manner, ditto popular literature, which was once serialized in newspapers and…
“A reviewer may hate your style, or newspapers may neglect you, or 500 people may tell you that you are bitter, delusional and boring. Let me ask you this: in the big juicy Zorba scheme of things, who fucking cares?”– Anne Lamott
When you say ?web serial? out loud, it sounds like Spiderman’s breakfast. It’s a shame the term is so dopey because what stands for is a quiet revolution in publishing that proves the adage ?everything old is new again.? It worked for Dickens. Readers awaiting the final installment of his serialized ?The Old Curiosity Shoppe?…
Prooffreader.com, apart from having a clever name (look more closely) also produces clever infografics. Seeing the distribution of English letters within words graphed so clearly?might inspire a re-evaluation of the?QWERTY keyboard.?When minding your Ps and Qs, you’ll notice that?both letters share a similar distribution pattern, mostly appearing at the beginning of words and then trailing…
