Through One Eye » words

Of six small sentences

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:57:32 +0000

A photographer in the UK writes steamy fiction. Peter Davidson’s imaginative writing flashes with wit and humour.

He sent a link to a website titled Six Sentences: What can you say in six sentences. “Need a break from your bigger writing projects?” asks Robert McEvily, the creator and editor of 6S. “Need to fine-tune a paragraph? Looking to write anonymously? In a brand-new style? In a completely different genre? Turn to 6S!”

Those were, of course, McEvily’s six sentences. My immediate favorite on the site is the following by Felicia Gregory:

Word

“Can you tell how intelligent someone is by how they write? If someone uses big and difficult words are they smart? If I call myself a writer am I gifted, insightful and cultured? No. What we read is not a test to be graded. The words we read, whether from a shopping list or a great novel are nothing more than a hand shake or a smile; they are merely another brush with humanity.”

I immediately subscribed by email–for “another brush with humanity.” Thank you, Peter.

Alaskan anniversary

Admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:35:08 +0000

Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of a cruise my mother insisted that we all take. We had a luxurious suite with a wide balcony. Majestic mountains and untouched land seemed to move past slowly, rather than feeling the cruise ship. I would look out the sliding glass doors at 3 a.m. in awe at the light and scene.

I fell in love with Alaska immediately.* So did my spouse. (My sib and bro-in-law did not.) The next year a headhunter called my husband about a job here. Remarkable. And here we are, still. Bliss.

*Except for the political scene

Reality

Admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:11:50 +0000

“The novel-writer in constructing his dialogue must so steer between absolute accuracy of language — which would give to his conversation an air of pedantry, and the slovenly inaccuracy of ordinary talkers, which if closely followed would offend by an appearance of grimace — as to produce upon the ear of his readers a sense of reality.”
Anthony Trollope, Autobiography (as quoted in The Writer on His Art 187 [Walter Allen ed., 1949]).

How much reality do we seek in art?