Writing

Dec. 8, 2011

How to Start

*The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.* Alain de Botton

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Sep. 10, 2011

How to Tell a Story

Matt Stone and Trey Parker drop in on a writing class at NYU (video).

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Jun. 26, 2011

Leonardo, procrastinator

Leonardo da Vinci’s epic procrastination and the practical use of procrastination as a sign that your work (rather than yourself) may be dull.

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Jun. 10, 2011

Think Quantity

Looking over the numbers of prolific artists and innovators reinforces the basic rule: Creativity is a function of the quantity of work produced.

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Jun. 3, 2011

“And then I saw her…”

When I’m stuck — as I have been for some time now, trying to crack the plot of my next book, to “break” the story, as screenwriters say — I always look for older stories to use as templates. The writer David Lodge has a great term for this sort of literary model: “precursor texts” [...]

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May. 27, 2011

Harlan Ellison: Pay the Writer!

Harlan Ellison has some choice words for those who presume writers will work for free.

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May. 4, 2011

Orhan Pamuk: “A writer is…”

Orhan Pamuk: “A writer is someone who … turns inward.”

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May. 3, 2011

The Patron Saint of Writers

Meet St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers and journalists.

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Apr. 29, 2011

Write because you feel like writing

“All this advice from senior writers to establish a discipline — always to get down a thousand words a day whatever one’s mood — I find an absurdly puritanical and impractical approach. Write, if you must, because you feel like writing, never because you ought to write.” – John Fowles (quote)

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Apr. 24, 2011

Three thoughts on starting a new novel

Three quotes, from Jonathan Franzen, Aaron Sorkin, and Emerson, to arm myself as I begin writing a new novel.

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