Feb 20 2010
Weekend reading links
First up, Geoff Manaugh, on whom I have a massive intellectual crush, writes the very excellent BLDGBLOG, combining architectural design niftiness with a futurist perspective. Here’s only the latest example of why I enjoy reading, especially the food-for-thought questions near the end. So many story possibilities!
On a more specifically writer front, Neil Gaiman linked to a two-part article in the UK’s Guardian containing “top ten tips” for new writers from published authors. I agree with Neil that Phillip Pullman is probably the smartest, though my vote for second-smartest advice are numbers 1 and 10 on Hilary Mantel’s contribution. Seriously folks, if you want to do this for a living, set up the financial support structure ahead of time. You really don’t want to be worrying about bankruptcy when a deadline is due.
I liked this link a lot. Lots of useful tips and such. However, I found most of Elmore Leonard’s “rules” to be arrogant and contradictory, riddled with ‘Don’t do this…unless you are [insert famous author's name here], then it’s okay.’
Yeah I definitely didn’t agree with all of them, but was glad to read them anyway. I kinda liked how they left in advice from authors that directly contradicted each other, a good way to see that hey, it’s all guidelines instead of rules.