Regardless of how long you’ve been writing, or how successful you’ve been in your literary career, you have more to learn. This series of essays is dedicated to that proposition. Each is a boiled-down observation on some element of the craft I’ve been trying to master for more than fifty years. I offer these thoughts to my colleagues and welcome your lessons in return.
Write Away Essays:
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—Almost every male who grew up between—roughly—1960 and 1990 knows which cinema hero carried, tucked into a slim side-holster so as not to disturb the line of his suit, a Walther PPK. As I thought about James Bond’s favorite pistol, I got curious about it and opened my Standard Catalog of……
Read More...There is a Jekyll & Hyde quality in the nature of a professional writer. In person, the writer seems not writerly at all. He or she can seem quiet, unassuming, even withdrawn. But to be effective, a good writer subsumes all self-doubt, conceals misgivings from the reader and writes with controlled aggression. by David……
Read More...by David Benjamin “There’s a holdup in the Bronx, Brooklyn’s broken out in fights, “There’s a traffic jam in Harlem that’s backed up to Jackson Heights, “There’s a scout troop short a child, Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild! “Car 54, where are you?” MADISON, Wis.—Occasionally, to test my memory, I try singing to myself……
Read More...by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—A growing phenomenon in film and TV entertainment, especially over the last quarter-century, is the morally vacuous villain, a badass so totally devoid of redeeming qualities that he or she is not character but caricature. This trend is manifest in the proliferation of films, and an entire studio—Marvel—rooted in comic books.……
Read More...by David Benjamin MADISON Wis.—I’ve decided to end the year cathartically with a rant against one of my career-long nemeses, the literary agent racket. I recently remembered an exchange with an agent named Alice, whose name I won’t mention because these people are vindictive. Before sending Alice my query, I had researched her thoroughly. I……
Read More...A return to the topic of satire, this time to offer a few tips to the aspiring satirist and a little homage to two of the discipline’s most extraordinary practitioners. by David Benjamin PARIS— In my last essay here, I discussed the challenge and the spirit of writing satire. Since then, I’ve pondered the……
Read More...One regrets writing satire because usually its topic passes too swiftly from currency. One does not regret well-crafted satire, however, because it offends the high and mighty, or confuses the literal thinker, or launches a hurricane of blowback. by David Benjamin PARIS— Whenever I complete one of my satirical pieces, I fight a pang……
Read More...by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—At a book festival recently, I listened to a young author named Hannah who specializes in thrillers, a genre in which also I’ve worked. During the Q&A, a reader asked whether Hannah feels troubled while describing scenes of detailed cruelty or bloodshed. Flatly, Hannah said “No.” She explained that, as a……
Read More...Fiction agnostics—readers who consume only non-fiction—tend to be unaware of how profoundly flights of imaginative fancy, have enriched their language and illuminated their lives. by David Benjamin “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by……
Read More...Every writer’s cast of characters is finite. The sources of those characters begin in the many facets of the writer’s own self. The astute reader can often perceive the recurrence of character from story to story and appreciate the writer’s skill in drawing variation from repetition. by David Benjamin Sometimes, a recurring character can recur……
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