Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Nowhere to hide in three-word sentences

A couple of words about the book I read, Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas. It was short and chock-full of good advice. I found the following exercise challenging but interesting: “Take any ten years of your life and reduce them to two pages. Every sentence has to be three words long - not two, not four, but three words long. You discover there’s nowhere to hide in three-word sentences.”  How true!



I am currently reading a book I received as a gift on Christmas morning coming out of church. It’s a spiritual memoir, My Life with the Saints by James Martin, SJ.  Thus far, I really enjoyed the chapter on Thomas Merton. I have 14 chapters to go. I don’t know why, but I’m really drawn to this book. It seems to be just what I need at this particular time in my life. I've heard it said, "God works in mysterious ways…"

Graziella Buonanno

8 comments:

  1. That sounds like an interesting exercise, Grace! I'm going to try it :)

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  2. I'm going to try it, too. Challenge accepted! Thanks, Graziella.

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  3. I am sooooo jealous! I've read about the Rich Wallace workshop and eventually plan to take it (2025 perhaps?)if I can. His writing is perfect for middle school boys, AND hanging out with writers looks like it was very rewarding!

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  4. If you get a chance you should take Rick Wallace's workshop. He is such an amazing writer and has so much to offer. And as for hanging out with writers is as much fun as it looks!

    Graziella, I love this idea of not hiding behind words. I am going to give it a try!

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  5. Sometimes a book like this is just what the soul needs...

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  6. What a fun collective blog. Found you all through Kathy Cannon Wichmann's comment on my blog. I'm a fan of Abigail Thomas. I've tried this exercise in the past. It's an interesting challgen.

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  7. I am a translator, not a writer, but this sounds like just the challenge I need to improve my skills! Thanks for letting us know about it.

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