I’m always interested in different people’s writing processes, including how they balance non-writing. Okay, I should probably specify productive non-writing. It’s pretty easy to procrastinate and not write. Novelist Vincent Zandri has an interesting approach that I’ve heard from other writers in how they approach the business of writing by being very definite about both the writing part and the business part. I appreciate the level of detail.
Magic and writing? Redundant, I know. But anyway, this is from last year, but Japanese writer Haruki Murakami‘s birthday was yesterday, so it popped up in some of my feeds. Emily Temple over at LitHub collected several of his observations on writing and –what can I say?– they’re a good way to start off the week.
After Monday’s post, I didn’t want to take up too much time. The weight of the week is probably dragging on you in any case. Here’s Stephen King with some brief writing tips.
I’ll probably share some other videos done by the Writer’s Guild as I watch them in the future, but here’s a treat for those of you who are fans of Your Show of Shows or The Dick Van Dyke Show and so on. Carl Reiner talks almost for almost an uninterrupted hour and it flies by as he gives you not only his history and development as a writer, but all sorts of wonderful tidbits…
I have often mentioned Scriptnotes, the screenwriting podcast hosted by John August and Craig Mazin, as a source from some really good information and inspiration for writing. On the one hand, I could arguably link to them just about every week, but if I had to pick just one this year, this week’s unprecedented solo effort by Craig Mazin is one you should listen to if you’re about to embark on writing a feature film…
Look over a score of “tortured artist” memes and you won’t have trouble seeing ones with writers. Writers are often portrayed as full of angst, indecision, indecision because of angst, angst because of indecision. Basically, the archetypical writer is in need of a good therapist. And what better therapist than a writer who’s become a therapist? That’s what screenwriter Dennis Palumbo decided to do… and he recently talked with screenwriter Ken Levine all about it.…
Lest Monday’s post seem insufficiently motivational, I figured I’d pass along this article by Charles Chu about how Isaac Asimov managed to be such a prolific writer. In case you’re not aware, Isaac Asimov wrote hundreds of books… and not just in science fiction, for which he’s perhaps best remembered. In fact, his books cover most of the categories covered by Dewey Decimal Classification. Not only that, he seemed to love to write. He wrote…
Mark Evanier has had an ongoing series about writers and rejection some of whose columns apply very well to actors and other creatives. The most recent one, however, goes deeper into the notion of writing for pay and how one might go about it from his experience. Check it out.
Part of a month-long series of inspirational or informational posts during NaNoWriMo. Man, we’ve all been going about this whole writing thing the wrong way. Sorry I’m only stumbling across this now, but Neil Gaiman reveals the true method for becoming a writer here. Gonna be a long wait ’til April 30th…
Part of a month-long series of inspirational or informational posts during NaNoWriMo. Why am I saving Heather Havrilesky’s rather profanity-laden-yet-detailed explanation of exactly how to write at this, the penultimate NaNoWriMo post? Because it’s actually rather long — and I’m hoping you’re catching this as part of an extended post-Thanksgiving break. You probably need a laugh at this point. Home stretch people. See you again on Monday!