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Hello, and welcome to this week’s WEN-zine nuggets.

Our little village is in high anticipation of two events ... one, a major nor’easter, is forecast to arrive in about 5 hours as I write this. The second is Monday’s solar eclipse, of which we are within the “totality” path around the 3:00 pm Eastern hour.

If you’ve never spent a winter in the Northeast, and are more familiar with southern weather events, imagine a hurricane with the rain replaced by snow – projected 18 inches of the heavy, wet variety. Oh, and 60 mph wind gusts. And that is sandwiched between the past few days of early spring weather and next week’s 50s to low 60s. Mother Nature does have a morbid sense of humor.

Then the eclipse. Imagine a town of ~ 600 people being overrun by an expected throng of thousands. (Every available sleeping room has been reserved for weeks ... the cows and goats may even have stall mates!)

Speaking of events ... should your imagination run to the horror genre ...

1. Stephen King’s first book is 50 years old, and “still horrifyingly relevant”

Carrie was published in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains its enduring appeal. Tidbits from the essay:

• King started it as a men’s magazine piece ... was unconvinced it would work ... so scrunched up the few pages he’d written and tossed them into the garbage. His wife fished them out, uncrinkled them, read them, and famously convinced King to continue the story. She wanted to know how it would come out.

• He based the situation of Carrie on two girls from the “other side of the tracks” whom he knew at school, both of them marked by poverty and decaying clothing, both of them taunted and despised and destroyed by their fellow students.

• “King is a visceral writer, and a master of granular detail,” writes Atwood. Read the New York Times piece (gift link).

2. 31 Ways to Improve Your Writing

• The things you know the most about are the things you’ll be able to write the best about, but the challenge is that once you know a lot about something, you’ll stop seeing it. Talking to people is the best way to discover what you should write about.

• The most interesting ideas are right in front of us. We assume that if an idea is important, it’s going to be hard to find. But sometimes, the best ideas come from the things that everybody sees, but nobody takes seriously.

• Memorizing poetry makes you a better writer. Memorization takes place in the body just as much as the mind, and the words you memorize will become a part of you. There’s a reason we talk about “knowing things by heart.”

Read all 31 here.

3. Intentional Curiosity: Get your Brain to Focus on What Matters

• Make space for mind wandering. While studies suggest that letting your mind wander too often can have a negative impact on overall performance in your daily life, scientists have found that closing your laptop and daydreaming for a few minutes has a positive impact on cognition. See where your mind wants to go when you let it follow its curiosity. You can even take some notes afterwards to record any interesting thoughts.

• Strengthen your curiosity. Make it a habit to be curious about everything in your life – your inner landscape, external events, new interests, and the people around you. By drawing connections between all these areas of your life, you’ll notice that what may seem like a distraction on the surface can be the seed of a project.

Read the full article by Anne-Laure Le Cunff at https://nesslabs.com/intentional-curiosity

4. FYI item

▪ 10 Best AI Story Generators (April 2024) – https://www.unite.ai/best-ai-story-generators/

Enjoy!

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To Your Writing Success,

Dana K Cassell

Editor

(Dana Cassell is founder of Writers-Editors Network, and has been freelancing/creating full-time for 47 years. In addition to writing, editing, and fact-checking for numerous business clients, she has published more than 2,000 articles and has ghosted or authored more than a dozen books.)

Not a Network member? Join now: https://freelancekeys.com/join-now/ Temporary discount codes:

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