Lawrence C. Connolly

Tag: Ernest Hemingway

  • Writing in Private

    Writing in Private

    “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.” So said Ernest Hemingway when accepting the Nobel Prize in 1954. And yet, a few decades earlier (according to his recollections in A Moveable Feast) he wrote many of his short stories in public—surrounded by (and occasionally taking inspiration from) the strangers who came and went as…

  • Overcoming Writer’s Block:Bono, R.E.M. & The Doorway Effect

    Overcoming Writer’s Block:
    Bono, R.E.M. & The Doorway Effect

    Some of the best advice for overcoming writer’s block comes from U2’s Bono by way of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. At least, I think that’s the case … though try as I might, I can’t locate any record of the interview. Nor do I recall anything else said in the interview or even if I came…

  • Thinking Like a Writer: Finding the Words

    For Mark Twain, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” For Mary Shelley, it is the difference between creature and being. We can see her deliberation in the excerpt (at left) of her Frankenstein manuscript, where she makes a choice that best…

  • The Shortest Flashes Ever Written, or . . . How Short is Short-Short?

    In an earlier post, I shared my thoughts on “Bedtime Story” by Jeffrey Whitmore – a short-short story that weighs in at a flyweight 55 words. Since then, I have given flash fiction presentations at PAISTA and in my advanced writing class at Sewickley Academy – both of which have given me the opportunity to…

  • “Dramatize it! Dramatize it!”

    In my previous post I promised to spend time responding to questions submitted during my most recent presentation on “The Art of Revision” at Seton Hill University. If you want to know more about the backstory, please take a look at that previous post, otherwise . . . read on! The next question in my stack…