Thursday, January 13, 2011









Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won't carry a quitter. ~  Stephen King










❝Good books don't give up all their secrets at once." ❞ ∻ Stephen King


 ❝A short story is a different thing all together - a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger. ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book. ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar. ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy. ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud. ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. Give me a choice and I'll take A Midsummer Night's Dream over Hamlet every time. Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it down, but it takes a genius to make people laugh.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝Running a close second [as a writing lesson] was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people … The real difference is that [Harry Potter author] Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and [Twilight author] Stephanie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good." ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. ❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝If I have to spend time in purgatory before going to one place or the other, I guess I'll be all right as long as there's a lending library.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝If you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝If you write books, you go on one page at a time. We turn from all we know and all we fear. We study catalogues, watch football games, choose Sprint over AT&T. We count the birds in the sky and will not turn from the window when we hear the footsteps behind as something comes up the hall; we say yes, I agree that clouds often look like other things - fish and unicorns and men on horseback - but they are really only clouds. Even when the lightning flashes inside them we say they are only clouds and turn our attention to the next meal, the next pain, the next breath, the next page. This is how we go on.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝So okay - there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You've blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair--the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book — something in which the reader can get happily lost, if the tale is done well and stays fresh.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.❞ ∻ Stephen King


❝If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.❞ ∻ Stephen King

Wednesday, January 12, 2011


No Comment!
A Commentary on Comments


The Mandate of the Writer’s Den was originally supposed to be ‘newsflashes, bits of info on writing, experimental stories, and general life experiences.’ 

It appears that lately that’s changed; I’ve become a sort of ‘writing cheerleader’ and ‘inspirational Sherpa’.  Now, that’s wonderfully cathartic and spontaneous and all, but since I’m doing all this cheerleading I figured that there’d be more, um, feedback.  Feedback is good; it lets a writer know they're not alone, and that they're having some sort of impact on the reader.


 I mean, I thought writers (most of you are writers, aren’t you?) were big-mouthed narcissists, loud and verbose and opinionated (At least I am), and I always envisioned a blog where dialogue was open and free, where ideas and inspiration and debate were bandied about, insults hurled; in short, more opining! I’ve had 14,000 views on this blog since it went live in July 2009, and about 80 comments, so the odds are I’m probably just blowing rhetorical smoke most of the time (I’d be left speechless by my own posts too, were I you) and I probably don’t leave much to comment on, making me the actual narcissist. 

I suppose I can handle tacit and quiet readers, I’m quite used to talking to myself anyhow. I’m curious though; do many of you get comments on your own blogs? Do you comment on other blogs? Cat got your tongue? Is it just me? (I fear so.)



What’s in store at the Den in 2011 … and Beyond! 

 I’m a tweaker; any changes I make tend to be slow and ponderous, kind of like cautiously poking an animal carcass with a stick. You may have noticed that annoying banner at the top of my posts, the one that says Wiki-Den? That’s my subtle attempt at a ‘home page’ type thingy, where I can archive all my posts, links, and all that good stuff. So far it’s been good; I don’t know how useful it is to any of my readers, since no one tells me anything (No comment!)

Also, after 2 years of blank stares, I have finally heeded some of the advice that many bloggers spout ad nauseum; CONTENT IS KING (Until it abdicates!) so I figure that if I can’t inform you all the time, I’ll entertain you, and vice versa. Don’t know if it’s working (do let me know? Leave a comment? Hmm??)

Having said that, let me comment (ahem) on this very post, called, appropriately, The Wednesday Post. I had been perusing my Blogger Stats and found that one of my most viewed posts was for a Wednesday Post I did 6 months ago. Due to my relatively slow nature I did not catch on that maybe people would want to read a newsletter type thing, posted once a week on the same day, on schedule (another good Blog tip: have a scheduled posting so people know where to find fresh words) but I would never have figured this out since no one talks to me or leaves a comment.

The ‘newsletter’ type post is one of my great loves; it allows me to post humorous bits, wordplay, and funny stuff, and also allows me to let you know what’s happening in that strange little place that is David Hunter’s universe.

Disclaimer: If you think I’m being whiny about this ‘comment’ thing, I can assure you it’s all in jest; I love each and every one of you who comes by and reads this blog, even if you don’t leave a comment (I never give up, do I?)

Random Samplings for your Consideration:

Words you think are nice but wouldn’t use in a sentence
 (or maybe you would, who knows?)

USUFRUCT: a legal right to use and derive profit from property belonging to someone else provided that the property itself is not injured in any way

USURY: an exorbitant or unlawful rate of interest

USURP: assume: seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession

ZUGZWANG: (German for "compulsion to move", ) A situation in a chess game in which a player is forced to make an undesirable or disadvantageous move.

OPPUGN: To assail with argument

KNEESIES: To press one’s knees against another person's knees.

BUGBEAR: An object or source of fear

BUNGHOLE: A hole in a barrel or keg

UNCTUOUS: (of a person) Excessively or ingratiatingly flattering; oily: "anxious to please in an unctuous way".

PLAUDIT:  An expression of praise

PLENUM:  A space considered as fully occupied by matter

PLEONASM:  The use of needless words.

PLICA: A fold of skin

SAPID: Pleasant to the taste

GESTALT:  A unified whole

GEWGAW:  A showy trinket

FLATUS:  Intestinal gas

PLOSION:  A release of breathe after the articulation of certain consonants. 

DISPORT:  To amuse oneself

Odious Phrase of the Week 
"Results-Oriented Business" 
Comment: Is there a business that is not 'results-oriented'? Duh.
(I'm guilty of using this phrase too.)






 ❝ Read, read, read.  Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and  see how they do it.  Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice  and studies the master.  Read!  You'll absorb it.  Then write.❞  


༺༻  William Faulkner






T w i t t e r - C e n t r i c






I'd like to thank a few people for inspiring me this week ...







@LaynaPimentel - Who is always writing, and inspires me to get off my ass and get something done.

@LornaSuzuki - Talented 'Imago' writer who heaps praise on me (And thus, inspires greatly)

@Auteur_Geek - Who seems to always have my back, even when I'm being accused of politicizing tragedy, as one Twitter follower did this week.

Okay, that's all for now folks, I'm outta here; got some more writing to do.  Stay tuned for the Writer's Den Weekend Edish (Possibly) and keep scribbling.  Also, please leave a comment if you so desire, it's free, and I don't bite (maybe)

PS: Will someone please click 'follow' and become the 200th member of the Live Writer's Society? That 199 is unnerving! You get no prize, and you get no praise; all you get is me! Take care now ...

"It's like the Penguin said, we gotta make that move towards redemption" 
~ Elwood Blues

~The Writers Den on Twitter~

~The Writers Den on Twitter~
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