The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition →

Another book for the growing “to buy” list.

Novel Writing →

“Whether you choose 60 days, 30 days or 6 months as your goal, all that matters is that you commit to it and implement a schedule that will get you there. Choose a realistic time frame that you can stick to. A little bit every day is better than trying to do too much and then giving up.”

4 Ways To Be A Traveler, Not A Tourist →

Via shawnblog.

I’ll be in Paris soon. Looks like good advice.

The Summer Intern Toolkit →

(via soupsoup)

"Your intuition knows what it wants to write, so get out of the way."

Ray Bradbury

"Writing a page every day gets me more than a novel per year — do the math — and there’s always 20 minutes to be found in a day, no matter what else is going on. Twenty minutes is a short enough interval that it can be claimed from a sleep or meal-break (though this shouldn’t become a habit). The secret is to do it every day, weekends included, to keep the momentum going, and to allow your thoughts to wander to your next day’s page between sessions."

Cory Doctorow’s writing advice from his article Writing in the Age of Distraction. Also important: no research while writing, and ditching the word processor for a plain old text editor.

"We can’t get good at something solely by reading about it. And we’ll never make giant leaps in any endeavor by treating it like a snack food that we munch on whenever we’re getting bored. You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do. And by a dedication to getting better, even when it’s inconvenient and may not involve a handy bulleted list."

Merlin Mann: Real Advice Hurts

"Above all, a well-imagined story is organized around extraordinary human behaviors and unexpected and startling events, which help illuminate the commonplace and the ordinary."

Tim O’Brien describes the essence of storytelling. (via 1st BOOKS)

Twain's Rules of Writing →

Eighteen simple rules for good fiction writing from one of America’s master storytellers. The best part? They’re gleaned from an essay by Twain excoriating James Fenimore Cooper. Nice.

"The job of a writer is to write. Anything else a writer does is entirely on his or her free time and subject to his or her own whim."

John Scalzi (via strutting)

Revising Fiction by David Madden: Leading by Example (and with TOC Checklist) →

Jeff VanderMeer shares his appreciation for the book Revising Fiction (now out of print, sadly). VanderMeer shares how the book “radically changed” his perspective on revision:

I grew immeasurably as a writer and began to exhibit more control. In encountering questions I didn’t even understand at the time, I also came to understand that there is no such thing as “mastery” in writing fiction — that there would always be more to learn, more to look forward to internalizing. These two lessons, and the presence of masters of fiction ghosting through the text, soon made Revising Fiction and me inseparable. And I still return to it every year to see what else I can learn from it.

There are several used copies available for sale on Amazon, so I might consider picked one up eventually. In the meantime, VanderMeer provides most of the table of contents that is, essentially, a list of 183 questions to ask oneself while revising fiction.

Call in Sick More Often →

Jamie Ford, author of the NYT bestseller Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, starts with the release of his first novel and traces its development backwards in time for three years, arriving at last at the spark that got it going: calling in sick to write for a day.

Not that I’m really entertaining any ideas about that right now, but — I can at least admit — it’s inspiring. And tempting, too, honestly.

"If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it."

Toni Morrison (via 1st BOOKS)

Finch: A Primer on Novel Openings (Please Chime In) →

Jeff VanderMeer gives a master class in writing the beginning of a novel. This is a fascinating look at how real writers write, and very educational. It’s particularly encouraging to see some of his early, discarded openings and compare them to the finished product. It’s a reminder that first drafts don’t need to be perfect, just finished.

"And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is gift and a privilege, not a right. We must earn life once it has been awarded us. Life asks for rewards back because it has favored us with animation. So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all."

Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing