Cory Doctorow defends the Internet, saying the worst piece of writing advice he ever received was to stay away from it. He offers some solid tips for avoiding distractions while writing and setting small, attainable daily goals.
How distracted are you by IM, skype, blogs, email, internet research etc. while trying to write? Are you more [...]
In his wonderful Nobel lecture, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio argues passionately why the writer, literature, and literacy matter in a global society, responding in particular to Stig Dagerman’s Essäer och texter. I greatly admire how this speech–like the best fiction–is at once intimate and inclusive, intensely personal yet widely relevant. Some choice excerpts:
If we [...]
Writers: if you didn’t have time for NaNoWriMo but are looking for a motivating way to structure and inspire writing time this December, consider signing up for the Southeast Review’s 30-Day Writing Regimen, which begins on December 1.
For only $15, participants receive the following: a free copy of the most recent issue (vol 26.2), daily [...]
Congratulations to Peter Matthiessen, whose novel Shadow Country just captured the 2008 NBA in Fiction. In this interview (conducted after his book was named a finalist), Mattheissen describes his writing process and shares why he thinks fiction matters. Interviewer Bret Anthony Johnston asked the author what the “engine” behind his novel was:
BAJ: For some [...]
Mr. Mailer entered shortly after the party began, walking with two arm canes, and his presence filled up every available space. When I wasn’t refilling bubbly, I watched, then I wrote. But even what I jotted down in my notebook remains fragmented to this day, a choppy result of overwhelmed giddiness in such company: A girl with bones sticking out of her back; nursing a new belly ring and a half bottle of wine. Chevy luminaries. Pencil guts…
This season, a love of literature might seem vestigial, escapist. Moby-Dick won’t feed the Darfur orphans; Anna Karenina won’t hasten ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. These books merely delight us, nothing more. But in The Irrelevant English Teacher, J. Mitchell Morse argues that there is nothing mere about delight.
Hey, fiction writers! What are you doing on Saturday, November 15th?
If you spend the day writing, you can help raise money for Dzanc, a unique non-profit independent press established (in their own words) “to not only publish great books, but to work nationally in set communities to provide writing workshops and year round programs for [...]
Agent Jessica Faust from BookEnds breaks down in this post how she reads each of the following: query letters, proposals, requested manuscripts, revised manuscripts from clients, and books for pleasure. This is helpful reading for anyone preparing agent submissions:
Often when reading proposals I’m distracted. I’m reading at home, at night, and dinner is on, or [...]
