danyel smith [writer]
naked cartwheels & journal scraps & contentious cursive
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Posts I like
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politicaljones: LOOK!
You can definitely see which family member Barack resembles.
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You know what!? I’ll buy myself this Royal typewriter and start writing a book because a macbook has no soul. This does.
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photo credit: Shella Pimental Photography
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One of the cutest children’s books I’ve ever read. Oh, man.
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Drake stay using people’s quotes. My dumbass thought drake was the one who first said this.
food for thought, 99% of today’s...
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7 posts tagged magazines
“When I was interviewing someone for a magazine article, I always noticed little things about that person—if they were constantly adding sugar in their coffee, for example. Or if I was reviewing a live show, I’d always try to find details so it didn’t read like the same old review of so-and-so. That eye for detail helped me in developing fictional characters. An editor at VIBE gave me interviewing tips when I first started, he told me to prepare questions, to research the person, but he also told me not to be afraid to let the interview go where it’s gong to go. When I’m writing (fictional) dialogue, what shows up on the page might be two sentences from what used to be a paragraph and a half. I let the character talk on and on and then I’ll go through that revising process. It’s similar to doing an interview, and choosing those one or two quotes from the dozens you got that sum everything up.”
Danyel Smith, interview, 2002
His teeth are crooked but his eyelashes are long and he’s such a creamy, soft brown he could’ve escaped from a Tollhouse cookie. He’s been talking to you all night, breathing his Jolly Rancher breath in your face, sipping your icy drink. He’s been dragging his clean, ridged fingernails over the back of your hand, asking you with his eyes if he can get closer.
You move closer to him and you hope he likes your ginger-ale breath, and he says in your ear that he likes your tomboy-tough way and your next-to-no lipstick and your mascara but no eyeliner. He says your big baggy sweater is sexy to him because it only makes him curious, makes him wonder if your bra—and he hopes it’s lavender and lacy—fastens in the front or in the back. The thump-thump of Dr. Dre’s “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” turns into strains of Jodeci’s “Come and Talk To Me” and then, quite suddenly, it’s that chilly warm nebulous time when amalgams are fierce and even tangible with possibility. It’s after the dance.
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Danyel Smith, from “Dreaming America,” SPIN magazine, 1993
circa 1994. notes on the cover story I wrote. cover of VIBE for the issue it ran in. believe it was Gil Rogan who was marking up the copy.
mini mocks of a VIBE tabloid issue. January 2009. man, it sold like crazy. shout-out to the team that put it together.
