If you’re tackling NaNoWriMo this year, check out these helpful tips from Shakespeare: 1. When in doubt, deus ex machina it. 2. Why write “she’s pretty hot” when you can write, “but soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East and this chick is the sun so shine on, baby!”? 3. If you don’t have any story ideas, just…
Tag: writing
Best of the Bard: “Most likely to…” awards for every Shakespeare play
I’ve got a few more posts coming up in the Best of the Bard series, including my favorite plays and a post about what I learned from this experience. For today, I wanted to have a little fun by providing the list of plays and then assigning each of them a “Most likely to…” award. Let me know what you…
Cymbeline: Thoughts on a writer’s progression
Cymbeline is an interesting play, though I don’t entirely think I can describe its themes, or even its plot, very well. The thing that I kept thinking about pretty much through the whole thing was progression. This play seems to consistently be listed as one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote. This was interesting because part of it felt very…
Politics in Shakespeare
Nearing the end of Shakespeare Week now! Tomorrow’s post will be about King John. Following that, the blog will resume its regular weekly schedule. In honor of beginning the Histories, our post today is about politics in Shakespeare. This is such a rich topic that I would love to explore in more detail, and it may be a subject I…
Shakespeare: To Read or To Watch?
Shakespeare is studied by both scholars of literature as well as actors. So how exactly should we view his work? And is his work best experienced as a piece of literature or as a piece or theatre? It seems a lot of people have strong feelings about this one way or the other. I’m going to give a non-answer, which…
Where to start with Shakespeare
With 38 plays (or 39, depending on what plays you count exactly) and well over 100 poems, it can be difficult to know where a good starting place is to explore the Bard’s work. I have not yet completed all of his work, so my thoughts on this may change by the end of the year, but I thought it…
Everything I need to know I learned from Shakespeare
Today is Shakespeare’s birthday and the 400th anniversary of his death. In thinking about how much Shakespeare means to me, I decided that the best way to celebrate his legacy in this special week would be to try and articulate what I have learned from him. 1) Nothing is simple. Being rich or powerful does not mean life is easy,…
Romeo and Juliet: Embracing the Inevitable
And so the Year of the Bard begins! Today, I have for you a summary of, some of my thoughts about, and some of my favorite bits from Shakespeare’s iconic romance, Romeo and Juliet! Yay! Here we go… What’s it about? Meet Romeo, a young man who is trying to recover from heartbreak. Enter Juliet, a beautiful young woman ready…
goodticklebrain: Happy New Year everyone! As the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, 2016 promises to be a year rich in Shakespearean adventures and excitement. These are hilarious. My own Shakespearean resolution? To finish Shakespeare’s complete works this year and write about my experience at Finding the Bard! First post goes up tomorrow!