Bentley and I I sit in front of the computer, thinking. For quite a while, my fingers didn’t touch the keyboard. My mind is outside the room, which I’ve arranged so carefully to avoid any distraction. I shut the blinds to separate myself from the outside world. Bentley, my dog, and a writing companion, sits …
There’s no writer’s block. Let’s end this years’ long controversy. Read More »
I remember how I felt seeing an exposed human heart for the first time. I was assisting my mentor with the coronary bypass surgery. After he split the breastbone, and incised the thick layer of the sack enveloping the heart, I saw a slowly contracting glob of muscle. No bigger than a human fist, spirally …
How do you raise the son, when your father is in prison for murder? Do you even want to have a son? Crime is committed in the operating room, and they blame the surgeon for it. Fatherhood is the most challenging job, and also the most rewarding. Watercolor by Kathy Flood
The first condition to become a writer is to have something to say. It reminds me of the anecdote from the stormy life of Napoleon. Each time the Frenchman conquered the town, he expected a 21-gun salute. One time the expectation was not met, and the town was silent. No sounds of celebration. He called …
This post was written on a Twitter request by people looking for this excellent writing advice given by an American fiction writer Alan Heathcock. It is re-posted as-is, preserving the original formatting and syntax. 1. Make a unique character, with a highly specific flaw that puts into question their ability to clearly interpret the world. …
It would be a mistake to treat any novel as autobiography. Rather, it’s an author’s insights into life’s secret places. Robert McKee.
The semicolon is not necessary, but useful. Tells the reader to slow down, but don’t stop.
There was a time during my tenure as a Chief of Staff when quite a few of our doctors died. Attending the funerals wasn’t that uncommon, but that time seemed like more than usual. I attended most of them, not ex officio, but because they were my friends. The ceremonies differed in the religion, style, …
The Poles lived through hell. WW ll started in our country. The hordes of invaders rolled over our land back and forth many times. Comparing them to the brutality of Genghis Khan’s wild tribes would insult Mongolian animals. The inhuman 20th-century ideology was added with sophisticated methods of killing and disposing of the dead bodies. …
Why the Poles are so sensitive about World War ll. Druga wojna światowa a sprawa polska Read More »
Those were the dreadful times. They were trying times. Polish people were put in the positions, where there were no good solutions. Any bad choice, and you ended up with a bullet in your head. Yet people helped each other. Unspeakable danger quite often brought up worst in the people. But also brought up the …
There were the worst of times for my family, my country and the world. Two terrible powers, on their insane way to dominate, crushed everything and everybody that was on the way to oppose their vision of the world. Poland for millennia was squeezed between bad and worse, between two shades of evil. Suddenly, our …
Now, in my retirement, I am a perpetual reader. Not only of fiction but also non-fiction, mainly books about craft of storytelling. And there is an abundant supply of advice how to improve your writing. Besides books you can touch, there are e-books, blogs, YouTube snippets and formal courses. The Teaching Company college level lectures, …
Writer’s block? What writer’s block, or how did I discover Brad Reed @BradReedWrites. Read More »
