Sometimes, late at night when I am trying to fall asleep, I pretend I am having a conversation with Dorothy Parker about writing. She seemed to have the answers for everything.

ME: Dotty, I want to talk about writing. Here’s your martini.

DOTTY: I like to have a martini, two at the very most. After three I'm under the table, after four I'm under my host. As for writing, I hate writing, I love having written.

ME: But you’re good at it.

As a participant in the Mark Program, one of my responsibilities is to post a weekly entry on this blog. Inevitably I leave it until the last possible minute, which is an accurate reflection on my entire writing life. I’ve said this before: I loathe writing, but love having written. Here we are again.

The Writers' Reel is a weekly video post.

"The novel, to me, is a demonstration of emotional and psychological truths." Best-selling author John Irving discusses the craft of writing novels.

Last week I wrote about slaughter. This week, I write about saving. Contradictory? Not really. As much as I have enjoyed trimming the fat off the novel, I have also discovered that there are some things I cut, only to put them back in later. I realize this is confusing when we are talking about writing.

You are bound to ask, “Are you saying, Monica, that you delete things only to put them back in later? Sounds like you’re not really editing, then.”

Bookmark This is a weekly post featuring insight on craft and the writing life.

Today, the Mark Blog recommends a great resource: a compendium of writing strategies called Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. 

My therapist has aggressive breast cancer. I want to start this story a different way, but it’s all I’m thinking about. My therapist - the woman who pulled me back from the brink of a brutal, consumptive anger that was like being stung by a thousand bees every minute of every day - is fighting for her life. At the risk of sounding like a total fucking asshole (too late), it’s really inconvenient timing.

The Writers' Reel is a weekly video feature.

Barney Rosset, the legendary owner of Grove Press who fought legal battles to publish provocative writers, including Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett, has died at 89. Read a great biographical piece on him at The New York Times' Arts Beat blog.