Writing
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On Protecting the Creative Process
Brilliant Reader (and hard-at-work novelist) CH considers our offer to share her first line and responds: Although I’ve decided not to share my opening sentence here, I’m grateful for your post, Jacke. 18 K-plus words later, I honestly couldn’t remember what my first sentence was. Today was one of those days when I wondered if Continue reading
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Good Luck NaNoWriMoers!
It’s National Novel Writing Month! And once again, I’m astounded by people who hate this project. (Has Laura Miller written her annual screed yet? I can’t wait.) Here’s a post from a while back: NaNoWriMo: A Full-Throated Defense What better way to tune up than to pull your favorite book off the shelf, study the Continue reading
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The Fire Alarm (A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #30)
We were in the middle of a dorm war. Every morning between one and three a.m., a resident of some enemy dorm pulled our fire alarm. Presumably someone from our dorm was doing the same at some dorm across campus. In this war I was a mere civilian. A pacifist, a bystander, a protestor. And every night Continue reading
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The Cladogram (A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #27)
I was a young father raising a toddler in New York City. I was also a broke, miserable student buried under an avalanche of student loans. In my filthy, sleep-deprived condition I suddenly remembered Thomas Hobbes’s description of life, which I’d read years earlier. What was the line? Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and…something else. Continue reading
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The Wayward Joke (A Jacke Wilson Objectino)
Yesterday was fun! Let’s try another Objectino!* Dinnertime. An earnest seven-year-old is attempting to tell a joke: BOY: Okay. Two cannibals are eating a clown. What does one cannibal say to the other? BOY’S MOTHER: I don’t know, what? BOY: “Does this taste funny?” BOY’S MOTHER: Why are two cannonballs eating a clown? Continue reading
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The Glamorous Colleague (A Jacke Wilson Objectino)
Introducing…the Objectino!* Overheard at an office meeting: WOMAN 1: I’ve always had this thing for the days of real glamour. You know, like the Fifties and Sixties, when women had style. I was born at the wrong time! I could see myself as an Audrey Hepburn…or a Jackie O… WOMAN 2: There’s a potato chip on your boob. Continue reading
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International Feedback on The Race!
Yesterday I posted a quick little request that summarized my thoughts on the U.S. elections. And of course, I wrote a book about a politician, based on some personal experience I had ghostwriting the autobiography of one of our nation’s gems. The politician in my book, a former governor recovering from a sex scandal, exemplifies everything Continue reading
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Good Luck NaNoWriMoers!
It’s National Novel Writing Month! And once again, I’m astounded by people who hate this project. (Has Laura Miller written her annual screed yet? I can’t wait.) Here’s a post from a year ago: NaNoWriMo: A Full-Throated Defense Democracy, Tolstoy (again!), NaNoWriMo, and hate. A good post. Onward and upward, everyone! Good luck with the Continue reading
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“Help! My family hates my pen name!”: The Response
Wonderful Readers! You have proven yourselves to be some of the wisest and most thoughtful people I “know.” Yesterday I posted a comment from a Wonderful Reader struggling with her family’s objection to her pen name. She had an interesting twist on the issue – and your comments were amazing. For everyone who’s arriving late to Continue reading
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Winner! Top Post of the Year #4!
We’re counting down the top posts of the year here at the Jacke Blog. (As well as the worst.) It’s probably not a surprise for those of you following the Jacke Blog that so far the Objects are taking home the prizes. I’ve been very grateful at the response to these – the Blog really Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 