There was a great article in the Guardian a while ago on writing
I was sent its way by Martin Weigel
Like many a blogger, I guess this blog is a scaredy-cats test run for real writing...
a Happy Melbourne entry is shorter than a chapter in a book
and a lot less intimidating to do.
Anyway, confession over... here are my favourites:
Margaret Atwood
5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
9 Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
Roddy Doyle
2 Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph –
3 Until you get to Page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety – it's the job.
7 Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It's research.
10 Do spend a few minutes a day working on the cover biog – "He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego." But then get back to work.
Geoff Dyer
4 If you use a computer, constantly refine and expand your autocorrect settings. The only reason I stay loyal to my piece-of-shit computer is that I have invested so much ingenuity into building one of the great autocorrect files in literary history. Perfectly formed and spelt words emerge from a few brief keystrokes: "Niet" becomes "Nietzsche", "phoy" becomes "photography" and so on. Genius!
7 Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.
9 Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don't follow it.
Anne Enright
7 Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.
Richard Ford
9 Try to think of others' good luck as encouragement to yourself.
Jonathan Franzen
1 The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.
Esther Freud
1 Cut out the metaphors and similes. In my first book I promised myself I wouldn't use any and I slipped up during a sunset in chapter 11. I still blush when I come across it.
6 Trust your reader. Not everything needs to be explained. If you really know something, and breathe life into it, they'll know it too.
David Hare
3 Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it.
I was sent its way by Martin Weigel
Like many a blogger, I guess this blog is a scaredy-cats test run for real writing...
a Happy Melbourne entry is shorter than a chapter in a book
and a lot less intimidating to do.
Anyway, confession over... here are my favourites:
Margaret Atwood
5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
9 Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
Roddy Doyle
2 Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph –
3 Until you get to Page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety – it's the job.
7 Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It's research.
10 Do spend a few minutes a day working on the cover biog – "He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego." But then get back to work.
Geoff Dyer
4 If you use a computer, constantly refine and expand your autocorrect settings. The only reason I stay loyal to my piece-of-shit computer is that I have invested so much ingenuity into building one of the great autocorrect files in literary history. Perfectly formed and spelt words emerge from a few brief keystrokes: "Niet" becomes "Nietzsche", "phoy" becomes "photography" and so on. Genius!
7 Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.
9 Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don't follow it.
Anne Enright
7 Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.
Richard Ford
9 Try to think of others' good luck as encouragement to yourself.
Jonathan Franzen
1 The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.
Esther Freud
1 Cut out the metaphors and similes. In my first book I promised myself I wouldn't use any and I slipped up during a sunset in chapter 11. I still blush when I come across it.
6 Trust your reader. Not everything needs to be explained. If you really know something, and breathe life into it, they'll know it too.
David Hare
3 Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it.