Tag: Writing
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Hard truths about writing…
This is really such a great post by Chuck Wendig that every aspiring writer should read: 25 More Hard Truths About Writing And Publishing. Pursuing writing as a career is so full of contradictions. It’s an art, it’s a craft, it’s sales and marketing. You’re venerated, you’re reviled. You probably make crapola, even if you’re…
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On Pandering: How to Write Like a Man
What an amazing essay by Claire Vaye Watkins. Her novel Gold Fame Citrus is on my “I need to read this soon” list. A taste: Let us embrace a do-it-yourself canon, wherein we each make our own canon filled with what we love to read, what speaks to us and challenges us and opens us up, wherein…
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Notes on Writing Down the Bones
Like the advice in pretty much all writing books, Natalie Goldberg’s advice in Writing Down the Bones boils down to the same core principles: write every day; don’t edit while you write; use detail; don’t worry about being perfect. Goldberg offers some useful tips for keeping a daily writing practice, but she also admits that you have to…
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Margaret Atwood walks around in a state of wonder…
More great stuff from Margaret Atwood! Brain Pickings shares a short animation that accompanies Atwood’s meditation on how technology shapes storytelling. Worth watching.
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A few recent links about writing and similar creative pursuits…
Stephen King asks: Can a novelist be too productive? We are all artists now, though. But if you don’t click on this story, the writer doesn’t get paid.
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Inspired by Austin Kleon…
I’ve decided to go analog and carry a notebook with me for recording my to-do lists, ideas, upcoming events, monthly goals, and the like, instead of relying on my phone or tablet. (See my last post.) Sure, it’s one more thing I have to cart around, but I carry a backpack purse anyway. I’ve noticed…
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A caution against self-publishing, with links…
I have a side job right now where I review “indie” books, which mostly means self-published books, although some small-press books are also thrown into the mix. Reading on average one self-published book a week for the past several months has made me very pessimistic about the quality of self-published books in general. In fact, it’s…
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Women writing — some links
For my yearly reading project in 2015, I have been focusing on women writers, specifically of speculative fiction. This project has led me down lots of wonderful side alleys discovering new writers, revisiting old favorites, and thinking about what they have to say. It’s also helped me understand the bias that women writers continue to…
Shannon Turlington 