THE FULL TITLE IS UNDERSTANDING Comics: The Invisible Art, and it will change the way you think about (as the author, Scott McCloud, concisely defines it) “sequential art.” McCloud takes us inside the art form to explain how and why…
Tag: craft
The “writing” part of Writing.
5 Thoughts: Blogging Life
1. THINK OF IT AS TRAINING. If you’re blogging the equivalent of a perzine, don’t expect a lot of readers, at least at the beginning. During the first decade of The Metaphorager‘s existence, my maximum readership was about 30 people;…
Why I Love: Writing
IT’S THE SCARINESS OF THE blank screen. It’s the focused attention. It’s the mental sensation of assembling Tinker-Toy pieces into a coherent structure. It’s the way the hours fly by. It’s the nothing-else-like-it buzz (thank you, Stephen King). It’s the…
Words to Bring Back: “Illicitator”
– Definition: n. An auctioneer’s shill – Used in a sentence: “Some of these political rallies seem to reek of illicitators.” – Why: It’s obscure, yes, but how many illicitators have YOU spotted recently?
Words to Bring Back: “Civics”
– Definition: n. pl. (construed as sing.) The division of political science dealing with citizenship and civic affairs. – Used in a sentence: “My old high school stopped teaching civics years ago.” – Why: It’s needed. Boy, is it needed.
Moving Lines
“FOR GOD’S SAKE LET US sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.” — Wm. Shakspere, Richard II “Are you a dream, Merlin?” “A dream, to some. A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS.” — Excalibur “Well, it’s…
Faint Praise
“I DON’T MIND WATCHING HIM chew the scenery — he leaves such interesting bitemarks.”
The W-Word, As In “We Are Not Amused”
A CREEPING TREND OF LITERARY infantilization is loose upon the printed land: we refer specifically to the practice of substituting for a contretemps-laden word a reference to its initial letter: “the T-word,” “the F-word,” etc. We recognize and laud the…
The Aim Of All TRUE Religion
PROLONGING THE GOD EXPERIENCE INTO every waking moment. (All else — songs, prayers, chants, acts, texts, charity, incense, beads, building fund — is just stage direction. Which is not to dismiss the stage direction, since that’s one of the keys…
Aside
“BUILDING A BETTER MOUSETRAP IS one thing. Testing it is something else.”
Touching With Words
THE FIRST TIME I DISCOVERED that my words had an effect on other people was when something I wrote made other people cry. The people were my fellow high-school English students, and the topic was a personal essay we’d been…
Words To Bring Back: “Juggernaut”
– Definition: “1 chiefly British : a large heavy truck 2 : a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path” – Used in a sentence: “My sister’s new baby is a juggernaut of…