Category Archives: Writing

More Haruki Murakami in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

The fol­low­ing is more from Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Run­ning:
It might be a lit­tle silly for some­one get­ting to be my age to put this into words, but I just want to make sure I get the facts down clearly: I’m the kind of per­son who likes to be …

September 20, 2009 – 9:41 pm | By Matthew Scheer | Posted in Haruki Murakami, Health, Mental Exercise, Professionalism, Rites of Passage, Running, Toxin, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Writing | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anton Chekhov on Writing

The fol­low­ing are some of Anton Chekhov’s words on the art of writ­ing, as first quoted in Francine Prose’s Read­ing Like a Writer:
In my opin­ion a true descrip­tion of nature should be very brief and have the char­ac­ter of rel­e­vance. Com­mon­places such as “the set­ting sun bathed the waves of the dark­en­ing sea, poured its …

August 27, 2009 – 8:51 pm | By Matthew Scheer | Posted in Anton Chekhov, Writing | Comments (0)

An Excerpt from Darkness Absolute: The Standards of Excellence in Horror Fiction

The fol­low­ing is from Dark­ness Absolute: The Stan­dards of Excel­lence in Hor­ror Fic­tion by Dou­glas E. Win­ter, a critic and biog­ra­pher of Stephen King and Clive Barker:
If you would excel in this field, remem­ber that a fun­da­men­tal mis­take is to strive to emu­late the com­mer­cial hor­ror novel or story. The bulk of this fic­tion is …

August 25, 2009 – 10:16 am | By Matthew Scheer | Posted in Douglas E. Winter, Horror, Writing | Comments (0)

An Excerpt from The Farther Reaches of Human Nature

The fol­low­ing is from The Far­ther Reaches of Human Nature (Viking Press, 1971) by the psy­chol­o­gist Abra­ham H. Maslow, as quoted in Sex­ist Stereo­types and Arche­types: What to Do With Them/ What the Writ­ing Woman Can Hope For by Jean­nette M. Hop­per:
“I have learned recently (through my stud­ies of peak expe­ri­ences) to look at women …

August 25, 2009 – 8:36 am | By Matthew Scheer | Posted in Abraham H. Maslow, Inspiration, Writing, feminism | Comments (0)

Excerpts on the Artist’s Way from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The fol­low­ing excerpts on the artist’s bat­tle­fied are from The War of Art by Steven Press­field, who wrote Gates of Fire (NYTimes Best­seller) and The Leg­end of Bag­ger Vance (NYTimes Best­seller).
(The bold on text is my own. )
A Pro­fes­sional
Some­one once asked Som­er­set Maugham if he wrote on a sched­ule or only when struck by inspi­ra­tion. “I write …

August 19, 2009 – 7:18 pm | By Matthew Scheer | Posted in Inspiration, Professionalism, Steven Pressfield, War, Writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Haruki Murakami, Excerpts on Writing

From an Inter­view of Haruki Murakami by salon.com:
You remem­ber that scene in the mys­te­ri­ous hotel? I like the story of Orpheus, his descend­ing, and this is based on that. The world of death and you enter there at your own risk. I think that I am a writer, and I can do that. I am …

August 17, 2009 – 8:47 pm | By Matthew Scheer | Posted in Haruki Murakami, Writing | Comments (0)