Author: Ron Rozelle

  I first read Woody Allen’s collections of humorous essays and magazine pieces – Without Feathers, Side Effects, and Getting Even – forty or so years ago and found much to like there.  Some of his screenplays are classics of American cinema, especially Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters, Manhattan, and Blue Jasmine, his reshaping … Continue reading Considering Woody Allen

Every year when it comes time for the high school seniors in my classes to compose college entrance and scholarship application essays I encourage them to show more than they tell.  Which is a fine rule to follow when writing anything other than pure reportage. I tell them that instead of saying outright “I am … Continue reading Showing, telling, and slipping things in

  When somebody tells me about a book or a movie they enjoyed that offered pure escapism - no deep hidden themes, no grandiose symbolism or social instruction – I’m reminded of one of my favorite authors, W. Somerset Maugham. He always followed a simple rule. The job of the writer, he believed, is to … Continue reading The Maugham Problem

One of the first things I do when I start writing a book set in the past, or even when I start reading one written by someone else, is locate an old map.  It is helpful, and often essential, in transporting me to a setting that is locked in the specific era where the story will play out. … Continue reading Maps

As a follow-up to yesterday’s tirade about the importance of encouraging children to become readers, I dug back into my files to locate a piece I wrote in my newspaper columnist days.  It ran on Sunday July 30th, 2006, ten years ago yesterday.  The complete original text is in a compilation of some of the columns … Continue reading On Wizards

I can't take credit for the title today.  Mr. Mark Twain came up with it. An old friend told me in the grocery store the other day she was enjoying this blog.  But she wondered why I had chosen literacy as its theme. She went on to say that, while she certainly saw the importance of reading … Continue reading The person who does not read books has no advantage over the person who can’t read them.

  I’m a sucker for time travel novels and movies. The notion of somebody from today slipping back into the world of yesterday has been mighty appealing to me since I watched the movie The Time Machine when I was eight or nine, which led me to check H.G. Well’s novel out of the school … Continue reading Traveling backwards

Here's a quick lesson if you want to look for evidence of some effective writing in whatever book you're reading, or if you want to provide some in whatever you're writing. Example 1:  "Very soon after she sat down she determined that she was very hungry when she watched the person at the next table bite into a very big hamburger." Example … Continue reading Pardon me if I repeat myself

Good writers have to be concerned with more than just the specific story they are telling, because good readers expect the world they are entering into to be larger than a simple plot that affects only a few characters. I call this the thing and the bigger thing.  When I write, be it fiction or … Continue reading The Thing and the Bigger Thing

I know the old saying about so many books and so little time. Still, I read some of my favorites again from time to time. I justify spending all that time in territory where I've already traveled by following a strict rule when starting new books: if the author's voice or the story's flow doesn't pull … Continue reading Do you re-read books?