Newsletter #3: Kingsolver, Ozick, Ferrante, Writer’s Block, and Reciepts
Monday, August 1, 2022
Three Sentences to Imitate and Study
I.
“Maybe life doesn’t get any better than this, or any worse, and what we get is just what we’re willing to find: small wonders where they grow.”
- Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder
II.
“They were all scarecrows, blown about under the murdering sunball with empty ribcages.”
- Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl
III.
“The circle of an empty day is brutal and at night it tightens around your neck like a noose.”
- Elena Ferrante, The Days of Abandonment
Two Quotes on Writer’s Block
I.
Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so that they can have an excuse to drink alcohol.”
- Steve Martin
II.
“What matters is not whether you will face resistance, but how you’ll face it.”
- Rosanne Bane, from Around the Writer’s Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer’s Resistance
This Week’s Writing Prompt/Tip
Collect several grocery lists and receipts over the course of the week. (Preferably not your own lists or receipts.) Then, review them and write a sketch about the person who bought the items. Why did they buy them? Who are they for? What are they going to do with them?