Writing – Page 3 – The Official Site of Jim Snowden

Any Good German Translators Out There?

By jim_snowden December 7, 2013Writing

Over at the Goodreads Summer of Long Knives discussion thread, my reader Lilo is telling us all about a book called Pfaffenhofen unterm Hakenkreuz (Pfaffenhoffen under the Twisted Cross.), a work of nonfiction by…

Talk to Me Live on Twitter Chat 11/13 @ 6pm Pacific

By jim_snowden November 11, 2013Writing

Our subject will be the lives of women in Nazi Germany during the 1930s, and the way those lives are reflected in Summer of Long Knives. Women's lives ran the gamut…

The Twist And How To Do It

By jim_snowden October 10, 2013Writing

I use Grammarly for proofreading because to err may be human, but who the hell is satisfied with being human? The story twist is an ancient art, as old as stories themselves--think…

Dear Jonathan Franzen,

By jim_snowden September 20, 2013Books, Writing

I understand I've come to this a bit late, but a cold kept me under covers and (mostly) off computers earlier this week. Judging from your Guardian column, if you'd…

I Am An (Anxiety) Dreamweaver

By jim_snowden September 9, 2013Books, Criticism, Writing1 Comment

Scott Southard, keeper of a blog of literary musings, wrote a humorous post on literary genres, and the factionalism they encourage, that got me thinking about how I choose to…

Recreating Hitler

By jim_snowden August 19, 2013Books, History, Writing

I've been doing a lot of straight history on the blog over the last month or so, but when it came to Hitler, I saw little advantage in rehashing his…

How I Cheer Up After Spending My Hours Writing About the Nazis

By jim_snowden August 17, 2013Writing

My books, and my writing in general, tends to go to dark places. Dismantle the Sun was all about cancer and loss. Summer of Long Knives is a tour through Hitler's morally insane…

Is it Possible to Make “The Final Conflict” Interesting?

By jim_snowden May 27, 2013Movies, Writing

Of Pixar's 22 rules of storytelling--which might better be understood as "22 questions and exercises that improve your storytelling odds" I get the biggest kick out of #20: #20: Exercise:…

Townbuilding

By jim_snowden May 20, 2013Writing

Literary fiction writers don't usually have to do quite as much world building as their science fiction and fantasy colleagues. We work mostly with existing locations, either past or present.…

Stupid Things Great Writers Say

By jim_snowden May 17, 2013Books, Writing

Let's start with V.S. Naipaul, Nobel Laureate of 2001: I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or…