I finally picked up one of the writers' magazines & have enjoyed perusing it. I was excited to see an interview with John Berendt who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which I have read, & I also saw the movie again recently.
He stresses what seems to be a recurring theme from the writers I have read about and that is the importance of listening. I would assume most writers wag around a little notebook or one of the newer electronic devices to jot things down as they hear them. I certainly would not be able to remember much without writing things down.
Berendt also stressed the importance of setting, saying that "each city has a personality, a mood, a history." Of course Midnight was set in Savannah, & his descriptions are very charming & colorful & really draw the reader in.
Another article which piqued my interest was storySouth, "an online literary journal devoted to 'provocative meditations on the Southern experience.'" I'm on my way to that website now & will report back later.
I was amused by an ad for Robert McKee's "storylogue"--an ongoing, online community for writers. For a free preview go to: www.storylogue.com. I haven't been there yet either. Seems to me that writers need to be unencumbered by family of any kind. One could spend every waking hour in writing pursuits. This writing thing seems addictive!
There were definitely a lot of good things in this article starting with the first thing you mentioned about reoccuring themes. As a writer I do imagine it is hard to come up with something concrete that has already been written by others. So listening and paying attention to all you read is surely a good idea. I didn't start realizing the important of the setting until this class. The setting means a lot because it allows the reader to get a clear picture of where all the action is taking place. The website you mentioned seemed a lot like the one that I spoke of in the ad I saw. This is really a good place because it is a healthy thing for all writers to have a meeting place to put forth ideas.
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