writing tips
Sep. 10, 2011
How to Tell a Story
Matt Stone and Trey Parker drop in on a writing class at NYU (video).
Tags: South Park · storytelling · video · writing tips
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.
Tags: Leonardo · On Writing · procrastination · writing tips
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.
Tags: creativity · On Writing · procrastination · writing tips
Mar. 29, 2011
What Creativity Means
Creativity is not about making something out of nothing. It is about making something new out of old things. To create, you must remix.
Tags: creativity · On Writing · writing tips
Mar. 21, 2011
The Five Commandments
A few rules for a novelist (or any artist, presumably) struggling to get a new project started.
Tags: creativity · On Writing · writing tips
Feb. 11, 2011
Creating Billy Bathgate
What the creation of Doctorow’s protagonist suggests about writing method.
Tags: Billy Bathgate · E.L. Doctorow · On Writing · writing tips
Oct. 5, 2010
Drawing Circles
Lessons for creatives from two famous circles, Giotto’s O and the enso of Japanese calligraphy.
Tags: featured posts · Giotto · On Writing · painting · writing tips
Sep. 16, 2010
It’s All Been Done
The pleasures and anxieties of writing in a genre.
Tags: Defending Jacob · On Writing · writing life · writing tips
Apr. 13, 2010
Writing Is Play
Writing is a form of play, which is not to say it is easy.
Tags: On Writing · writing life · writing tips
Jan. 31, 2010
The Anxiety of Finishing
The unease of publishing a book that is flawed.
Tags: David Remnick · J. Anthony Lukas · On Writing · Samuel Beckett · Seth Godin · writing life · writing tips
Jan. 28, 2010
The Importance of Shipping
Seth Godin advises: What you do for a living is ship.
Tags: Defending Jacob · On Writing · Seth Godin · video · writing tips
Sep. 17, 2009
A Thousand Words a Day
I usually avoid words-per-day quotas, but with a deadline looming I had to try.
Tags: On Writing · quotas · writing life · writing tips
Aug. 10, 2009
Remembering Updike the Father
John Updike’s son writes a eulogy for his father
Tags: interviews · John Updike · On Writing · video · writing life · writing tips
Aug. 8, 2009
Crime novels and entertainments
Crime novels are easier to write than literary ones. So what?
Tags: audio · Graham Greene · On Writing · writing tips
Aug. 1, 2009
Makers vs. Managers
All writers are both makers and managers. The trick is to keep the two roles separate.
Tags: On Writing · writing tips
Jul. 1, 2009
Capote and Ellison: Blocked or just procrastinating?
What happened to two famous writers who fell silent?
Tags: On Writing · procrastination · Ralph Ellison · Truman Capote · writing tips
May. 29, 2009
Things I Love: The AlphaSmart Neo
The best computer for writers isn’t a computer at all.
Tags: AlphaSmart Neo · On Writing · writing tips · writing tools
May. 27, 2009
Writing in the Age of Distraction
Cory Doctorow on getting your work done without quitting the internet cold-turkey.
Tags: Cory Doctorow · On Writing · writing tips
May. 26, 2009
Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow: Why Writers Get Stuck
Writers get stuck for a reason: the mind is working on a problem.
Tags: On Writing · writing tips