Getting things done

Am finally getting around to reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft which was  mentioned in several of the writing courses I took. I appreciated reading that King went through “periods of idleness followed by periods of workaholic frenzy.” It actually made me feel better to read that someone as prolific a writer as King goes through spells of inactivity. If I’m not writing or doing something “productive”, I’m often plagued by guilt.

I read two interesting pieces about writing and writers today worth passing along:

Writers of Korean descent

Stumbled onto this list of American writers of Korean descent. I read Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee years ago. Great book. The protagonist, Henry, is a man caught between two worlds – Korean and American, and finds himself belonging to neither.

The single story

Chimamanda Adichie is a novelist originally from Kenya. In this clip, she talks about the danger of listening to a single story about a culture or a country, and about how she found her authentic voice.

Does it even need a name?

Just added some background information about the book that I’m writing. The convenience store in my story remains nameless. I often struggle with names and sometimes even dread having to name a character. Like many writers, I often look up names to see if their meanings match the characters I’m creating. The other challenge is knowing people with the names I want to use in a story.  I still need to overcome my fear of offending readers – although I’ve come a long way since I first started writing. Writing, even fiction, requires courage sometimes.

I’m wondering if the store in my book needs a name or if it should remain nameless, a generic random store in the heart of Toronto to represent the hundreds of other convenience stores all over the city. Thoughts?

Day 2

So far, I’ve spent yesterday and today trying to build this website/blog. Check out the links pages. There’s already over a hundred links to different resources for writers and readers.

Finally…

This is my first official blog entry.