MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Oh, really? So when I say: Nicole bring me my slippers and fetch my nightcap,” is that prose? PHILOSOPHY MASTER: Most clearly.MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Well, what do you know about that! These forty years now I’ve been speaking in prose without knowing it!—Molière, The Bourgeois Gentleman, 1670 In the previous post, I wrote about …
We look at sky at night and see chaos. We drive on 405 through Los Angeles during the rush hours and see disarray. We walk into the forest, look at the trees and see discoordinated growth around seemingly unregulated river. Scientists study the environment trying to find out reason why the thing are the way …
A disclaimer, frequently found at the beginning of many works of fiction, always puzzled me. “Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental” That’s the fallacy propagated, I …
How did I become a writer By the end of my hospital life I’ve decided what I wanted in the retirement. With a sudden ‘But of course!’ writing became a major interest of mine. In time, it gradually dominated most of my days’, and sometimes nights’, hours. The learning process took time, but now the …
I shouldn’t complain about the Nobel Prize in literature. Polish writers received this prestigious award five times, and, by the numbers, we are in the top of so distinguished countries. Not bad. But when you think about the idea of rewarding a person for being the best writer in the world, and about the convoluted process how the …
Why do I write You are an aspiring writer. The idea for this book grew in your mind. You know what to write, but still, don’t know how to write. Yellow legal pad and pencil (which number?), pen? Word processor? Google? Word? Scrivener? You start typing and discover new problems: how to correct? how to …
Just imagine. Imagine yourself climbing a steep mountain. You start from the sea level and see this shiny structure on a hilltop. You could be in Italy and you see the castle. Let’s say, you are in San Marino, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino. And you now face the fortress Guaita on top of Mount …
After writing more or less seriously for several years I am fascinated by a question: ‘why people write?’ I know why I started. My father already died and mother was getting older. They both went through hell in their lives together. Father didn’t talk much, but mother was a bottomless well of stories. And she …
Book club event in Briar Chapel and why do I write Read More »
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” Arthur Plotnik Not many authors write readily publishable first drafts. For the rest writing in essence is rewriting, and that’s an entirely different process. Some authors can do …