The Ides of March, or Halfway to Na/GloPoWriMo

The soothsayer told Caesar to beware the ides of March, but hopefully, the only thing you need to be aware of today is that there’s just half a month left until April 1, and the start of Na/GloPoWriMo.
Thanks to everyone who has submitted links to the sites where they’ll be posting work this year – keep ‘em coming! And if you aren’t planning to post work online this year, that’s no problem! Our (optional) prompts, resources, etcetera work just as well offline as on.

And without further ado, here’s our craft resource for the week! Over the past few years, Graywolf has published a series of writing guides/books entitled The Art of the . . . . So far the series has books on The Art of the Line, The Art of Syntax, etc. Last summer, while wandering the aisles of a bookstore, I happened upon one of the entries in the series, Mark Doty’s The Art of Description. The book consists of a series of close readings of the descriptive word choices in poems, and I found it extremely illuminating and helpful in re-orienting me away from some lazy habits I’d fallen into in writing. One of the essays from the book, a close reading of Elizabeth Bishop’s The Fish, is available online here. I hope you enjoy it!

When we come back next week, there will only be a little over a week left until April 1. Time to start sharpening your pencils and, er, keyboards. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please let us know at napowrimonet AT gmail DOT com.