I may be jumping up and down in a panic. There is going to be a contest over at Story-a-Day. An author is going to judge stories written for the challenge----one story per writer. So, you know I'm staring at what I've written wondering which story to choose. It isn't life or death or anything...but …
Category: writing
Maybe Not Everywhere
This may be a lame excuse, but I'm in Waco. Waco! And I've got to be at a roller rink tomorrow morning and the next at 5 am. These are the joys of being a mom to a speed skater. I have trouble writing in hotel rooms. I can write in my home, in cafes, …
Maybe You Can Blame Your Parents
Your parents may bequeath you many things... like brown eyes, a house, a fiery personality, an obsession for antiques. My parents have not left me any of those particulars. One thing about writing a separate story every day is that you notice what your repeat. In fact, I think I'm repeating that idea. Was that …
Maybe You’re a Writer?
Maybe this happens to you all the time. Yesterday, I was introducing myself to another parent at the roller rink. And a friend standing nearby asked if I were skating too. "Yes," I said. "I've been at my computer so much this week, I need to move." And this father, who knew nothing about me …
Maybe You Won’t Laugh
I may be joking. Interviewer: In your Antologia Personal... Borges: Look here, I want to say that that book is full of misprints. My eyesight is very dim, and the proofreading had to be done by somebody else. Interviewer: I see, biut those are only minor errors, aren't they? Borges: Yes, I know, but they …
I Think–Maybe
I may be wrong about everything. In The Paris Review Interviews Part I, Saul Bellow quotes E.M. Forster, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" I read this and thought, "Exactly." This is another reason I write. The more I write, the more I work out the world and …
Maybe Now
I may begin more stories in the present tense. Well, maybe not. But I've used present tense in a few stories, and it seems the most natural way to describe heart break. Like, you have to feel it right now or your cynicism and experience get in the way. Maybe. Could be wrong. What tense …
Maybe This Voice
This may become tedious. Forcing myself to blog and write a short story every single day is a challenge all right----to me and my readers. Okay, maybe not my readers. You aren't obligated to do anything. But what is all this writing for? This morning I read an article in Vanity Fair by Christopher Hitchens----Unspoken …
Maybe a Temper Tantrum
Sometimes I may begrudge every other published writer everything. You know, in moments of personality collapse. Meaning, those moments when I'm not the great and fantabulist soul I want to be. (Yes. Fantabulist.) Those moments when I'm resistant, cranky, jealous, and generally not nice. (All you saints out there can begin throwing stones at any …
Maybe Imperfection Is Okay
May beastly things happen in my stories but not in my writing of them. Eleven stories in to Story-a-Day and my brain seemed to have suffered a structural collapse. I finished the story because, well, Time said to. But what really--no maybe about it--bothers me about this story is what it lacks throughout. A layer …
Marta Bacon 