Chris Nicholson's Writing Weblog
June 28, 2006 • Wednesday
"Area Woman Fulfills Dream Of Becoming Writer By Getting Job At Bookstore" — The Onion.
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June 10, 2006 • Saturday
According to an AP article ("See 'The Shining,' be 'The Shining' "), online movie rental service Netflix will screen ten films this summer at the locations where the stories were based.
Field of Dreams will be screened at its famous Iowa baseball/corn field, Jaws at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and Escape From Alcatraz at San Francisco's Alcatraz Island.
I'm holding out for Star Wars.
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June 08, 2006 • Thursday
OK, here's another one (I would have saved my previous post for today had I known this redundancy would occur):
In a reader poll conducted by Britain's The Book Magazine, J.K. Rowling has been voted the "greatest living British writer." (See BBC News' article, "Rowling tops book magazine poll.")
This begs the classic question: To be a good writer, is content more important than craft? Is it better to write a great story than to produce great prose?
Rowling is by no means a prose hack (in fact, you can see her compositional dexterity improve over the course of the Harry Potter series — the fourth book, in particular, shows a notable change in the economy and creativity of her word choice). But the Potter books are certainly more focused on strong character and setting, and less focused on wordsmithing.
So, which is more important, substance or skill? To be a commercially successful author in the modern age, the former. To snootily consider yourself a "serious" writer, the latter. To be truly great? Both.
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June 01, 2006 • Thursday
For anyone who's been disappointed with the corporate movie and book sites for the Harry Potter franchise, know that the real action is at J.K. Rowling's site.
The site, which seems to be authored by Rowling herself, contains oft-updated news, dispelled rumors, notes on chracters, edited passages, etc.
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