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No Plot? No Problem!
No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty Published: 2004 If there was ever a year I was going to participate in NaNoWriMo, this wasn’t it, but I’ve had this sitting half-finished on my shelf for a few years now and decided just to give it a read anyway. This is meant to be a companion book to read while you’re attempting to write a novel in a month, so after the introduction it’s split up into four main sections, one for each week. Each of these contain anecdotes from previous winners, inspirational essays, and some advice for tackling common…
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The Fry Chronicles
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry Published: 2010 Narrated by: Stephen Fry I read Stephen Fry’s first memoir, Moab is My Washpot, earlier this year, which covers his life up to Cambridge. The Fry Chronicles is in my TBR Pile Challenge list, so it’s been on the shelf for quite a while now. I feel a bit guilty about this, but after listening to his first memoir as an audiobook, I couldn’t pass up doing the same with his second. I love self-narrated autobiographies when they’re well done, and it was obvious his would be, so the dead-tree version is still collecting dust on the shelf. This actually covers less…
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Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy by Isaac Asimov Published: 1993 Every now and then I get a hankering to write some fiction, but writing is hard, so I usually just read a book about writing instead. I have a whole shelf of them, and this time I came across Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy while thumbing through. I bought and read this over ten years ago, but I couldn’t remember a damn thing about it. This is a collection of essays on different aspects of writing, from the fundamentals of plotting and dialogue right up to submitting manuscripts and dealing with editors. Isaac Asimov is listed as the author, but…
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William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Speech
Here’s an excerpt from William Faulkner’s 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech, actually presented to him in 1950. An optimistic view of a writer’s duty. The full text is below. Ladies and gentlemen, I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money…
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Neil Gaiman and Connie Willis
Neil Gaiman posted this on his weblog a bit ago. It’s him and Connie Willis on a panel together talking about their craft and influences. If you have any interest in writing, it’s an interesting hour.
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Happy Idiot
I watch the jocks come out in the post parade. one will win the race. the others will lose. but each jock must win sometime in some race on some day, and he must do it often enough. or he is done as a jockey. it’s like the girls on the street trying to score for their pimp or each of us sitting over a typewriter tonight or tomorrow or next week or next month and doing it well enough once in a while or he is done as a writer, he’s a whore who can’t score. I think I would like a little more kindness in the structure but…
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How To Write a Book
I occassionally like to pretend that I’m going to write a book someday, but unless I’ve been writing in my sleep without knowing it, this isn’t likely to happen. I do, however, still enjoy reading about writing. I have a shelf full of writing guides and memoirs as proof of that. Wired’s Steve Silberman recently asked 23 authors what they wish they’d known before attempting to write a book, and he listed their answers in a blog post. The core advice seems to be: Download Scrivener – the beloved Mac writing/organization tool, now with a Windows beta. Write something, fool – write every day, no matter how you feel, no…
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Shapes of Stories
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Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing Fiction
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of. Write to please just one person. If…
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An Evening with Ray Bradbury
Not to turn this into a Bradbury fan site, but here’s his 2001 keynote address at The Sixth Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea. Great stories from a writer’s life. I love listening to someone who takes no shame in their enthusiasm and passion for a topic. It’s also healthy to listen to adorable, old people talk about their lives sometimes.