6 Comments

can a shoe horn be non-literary? i don't know about the literary part. i fear the word is over used. my own private shoe horns come from a place where MFAs don't exist (even if i have one). i wonder about the usefulness of prompts, triggers, launching pads, catapults, trampolines, etc. maybe all this shoe-horning leads to a lot of junk. no? i wonder. when i was younger i found myself caught up in the natalie goldberg "writing down the bones" way -- now i don't think much of it. she sold a lot of books to humans with dreams (and dreams deferred). writing as "self-therapy" makes me cringe. don't mean to agitate. just wondering. or maybe agitation is my own literary shoe horn. hmmm.

Expand full comment
May 23, 2023Liked by Joy Baglio

My favorite literary shoehorn when starting a blog post for a client is "Look, stupid. . ." Whenever I'm stuck for an opening lede, I write that and then say the thing I want Stupid to know. Everything just flows out of that.

Expand full comment

Love this, Joy. I remember you talking about it before. Excellent prompt as well. Thanks!

Expand full comment