Tag Archives: writing

Book Review: The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Tietsu

Sometimes it is hard to write reviews. When you can pin one thing down that you loved, hated, emoted over intensely, you can kind of push you way into something fast and messy. I am not a great reviewer. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged american literature, Books about Books, Language, literary fiction, Minimalism, Nicholson Baker, poetry, The Anthologist, Trivia, Writer's Block, writing | Leave a comment

The Truth of It

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Tietsu

I don’t have hobbies, I have loathings. Pieces of myself I chew on when no one’s looking. Ideas, failures, habits, all bitter, all nursed against the pressure of my tongue. I don’t kill them, I can’t. I tried. Tried nailing … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Non-fiction | Tagged creative process, doubt, dreams, dressing it up into something else, fiction, hiding in your art, lies, loathings, madness, misery, nonfiction, writing | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Tietsu

I love the Oxford English Dictionary. I first got untethered access to it in college (Hurray for the benefits of ludicrously overpriced education!), now granted this was in attempting to find a ‘unique’ interpretation to a couple of John … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Nonfiction | Tagged Biography, Book about Books, British History, crime, Dictionary, Humanities, Insanitarium, madness, murder, Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester, words, writing | Leave a comment

Ruminations #6

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Tietsu

Is it okay to spend hours looking over old notes, marveling over the fact you managed to come through the event in one piece while being awestruck at how stupid you were to do it to begin with? My notes … Continue reading →

Posted in Essay | Tagged anxiety, blood, creative process, depression, Looking Back, nostalgia, Old Writing Notes, Short Stories, sinus issues, The Novel I've almost written, war, Writer's Block, writing | 8 Comments

Eight Fingers, Three Paths, and One More Year

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Tietsu

I have some ideas… Continue reading →

Posted in Essay | Tagged anxiety, ideas, inspiration, New Starts, new years resolution, Red Boar Jones, resolution, Short Stories, terror, The Novel I've almost written, Writer's Block, writing | Leave a comment

Argument with Self: 12/23/1016

Posted on December 23, 2016 by Tietsu

“Do you really need to have the walls melt here?” “It looks cool.” “Sure, but does it add anything besides that?” “It’s been there for over a year and a half now, taking it out seems wrong.” “That’s mythos. Next.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Fiction, Something Else | Tagged anxiety, character, Cutting Room Floor, debate, dialogue, editing, mythos, note to self, Process, The Novel I've almost written, writing, Writing Process, wrongness | Leave a comment

Book Review: Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Tietsu

Sweet Tooth is one of those books that felt substantially shorter than it actually was. This probably has to do with the fact that it never truly felt like it picked up whatever thread would have provided a sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, fiction | Tagged british literature, Culture Gap, England, Espionage, Ian McEwan, literary circles, literary fiction, mystery, Spy, Sweet Tooth, writer, writing | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase by Mark Forsyth

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Tietsu

It’s clever, this book. It’s also a good book. It’s clever, chatty, witty, funny, succinct, and unpretentious. It sets out to give names to all the rhetoric we never learned in schools. This book is a study of expression and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Nonfiction, Review | Tagged criticism, Grammar, Humanities, Language, linguistics, literary, Mark Forsyth, perfect, Phrases, Reference, The Elements of Eloquence, writing | Leave a comment

Ruminations #2

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Tietsu

It’s amazing looking over the notebooks for the last 400+ days and realizing that you’ve been running in circles for over year, hoping to find some unrefined truth hidden in the scorched and mulched ruins of what you were once … Continue reading →

Posted in Essay, Something Else | Tagged A novel someday, anxiety, doubt, editing, insecurity, mania, publishing, ruminations, talent, writing | Leave a comment

Pieces from the Novel #1: Neon Soul

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Tietsu

Watching the cabs fold into the horizon of the city, something squeezes me, knocking against the comfortable fog of the alcohol. I feel it, an uneasy melancholy begging to be let out, to be thought, considered, felt. I steel myself against … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Fiction | Tagged A novel someday, alcohol, contentment, Dreams Away, excerpt, happiness, ice cream, Japan, Japanese, night life, perfect, pieces from the novel, wandering, writing | 1 Comment