Wade continues his poolside conversation with freelance writer Joyce Gorsuch in Las Vegas. Joyce discusses returning to America, breaking into the local magazine market, how she finds work, and her advice to young writers. Also: Wade copies his wife’s Art History class notes from 1989 for a writing assignment. Don’t tell the professor or he’ll be totally busted!
Add comment December 22nd, 2007
Just because I don’t let my guests talk about fiction writing doesn’t mean there aren’t great tips and insights from the world of fiction that we can all use.
This morning I listened to Mur Lafferty of I Should Be Writing interview one of my favorite authors, Connie Willis. It’s a great interview. Along with topics such as character creation and plot, Connie discusses the knotty issues of time management and working from home.
On time management: There’s no magic bullet. This is a problem that never, ever gets solved once and for all. Life will always get in the way of writing, but there are ways to find writing time every day, and build up good work habits.
On working from home: There are some kinds of work that she can do at home, but she doesn’t write at home.
Also: Writing is really, really hard.
And do yourself a huge favor and read Doomsday Book.
Add comment August 29th, 2007
This morning the Slate Political Gabfest discussed Elizabeth Edwards’ claim that her husband John would be a better presidential candidate for women that Hillary Clinton. Slate’s chief political correspondent John Dickerson called this statement “counterfactual.”
In this context, “counterfactual” strikes me as a wonderfully diplomatic word. Ms. Edwards’ statement isn’t “wrong” or “a lie” or even “mistaken” - much more emotionally charged descriptors. It simply runs counter to the facts. But in my mind at least, “counterfactual” pushed all of those other possibilities right to the front of my thoughts without Dickerson needing to say them a out loud. Nicely done!
A little Google searching (as little as possible) turns up a number of different uses for the term “counterfactual”. Counterfactual thinking is the sort of “what if?” speculation that we all engage in when we look back on the events of our lives. (”I should have gone away to college instead of staying at home.”) A counterfactual conditional is an if-then statement indicating what would be the case if the first part of the statement were true. (”If Oswald had not shot Kennedy, then someone else would have.”) Counterfactual history applies this to the study of history. (”What would have happened if Oswald had not shot Kennedy?”)
Add comment July 20th, 2007
