My secret is out. A slip of the little finger posted my title-free rough notes to this blog in the wee sma’ hours, meaning that–despite my super-fast middle finger on the delete button–anyone subscribing will now know exactly how I approach the task of writing a round-up. Or at least, how I approached the task this week; I’m still seeking the winning formula here.
“Go to sleep!” was Matt’s response to my panic email. So I went obediently to sleep, and now you’re all going to have to pretend it’s Friday over again. Ta.
So. It’s Friday 24th September, and if you happen to be in the US–hey, it’s National Punctuation Day! WordCount blogger Michelle V. Rafter celebrated with a useful list of grammar resources; some online, some not.
Still in the US, tomorrow sees the start of Banned Books Week. The top ten banned list for 2009 contained three novels I’d term American Classics–The Colour Purple, To Kill A Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye. This year, The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary made the list. While it’s tempting to be very English about all this and mutter something about “Only in America…”, we should all keep globalisation in mind. Or should that be globalization? Either way, the Let The Words Flow team are marking Banned Books Week with an invitation to email them a photo of yourself reading a book from the list. There are prizes.
There was much excitement our side of the Pond this week following the publication of MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949. The Guardian sat up and paid attention, profiling the author, reviewing the book and revealing all the best bits (probably). I can’t blame them–there’s never been an official history of MI6 until now. Ian Fleming wannabes, take note.
It’s good to see some heartening news from the outside world: Foyles, the famed London bookseller, declared a profit last quarter for the first time in a decade. So much for the e-book threat, eh.
On to the blogs, and there’s been some seriously good stuff out there this week. Storyfix.com published a nice item on structuring a short story; Scott G. F. Bailey posted about his experience of taking risks with structure; Janice Hardy offered up one of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever come across, period. Julie Eshbaugh came up with another nugget on Let The Words Flow when she explained the need for balance in conflict. The Guardian’s John Mullan focused on a recent trend in literary novels, namely narration in the present tense. Spoiler: he sometimes likes it.
Next up, a few items about the author-agent relationship. In another fine post, Janice Hardy highlighted the most common pitfalls of those all-important opening paragraphs. Natalie Whipple explained why it’s not always a good idea to offer a sequel to your agent at the outset. Tawna Fenske looked at the meat of the novel–its subject matter–and debated whether it’s worse to chase a trend or to write “the book of your heart” and have it fail anyway. Meanwhile Kate at kt literary deemed it time for another live blog, giving her readers a vital insight into the workings of an agent’s mind when faced with umpteen slushpile queries.
How many writers does it take to change a lightbulb? asked Iain Broome on Write for Your Life. One, he concludes; but that one needs to be able to take criticism. Criticism and critiquing have been common themes this week, perhaps because we’re only a few short weeks away from November and NaNoWriMo. Kat Zhang wrote about the heightened need for tact and diplomacy when critiquing a new writer, while stablemate Vahini Naidoo focused on how to give a useful critique. On the other side of the fence, Vanessa DiGrigorio published her tips on dealing with criticism without, y’know, weeping.
Nathan Bransford responded to a Publishers Weekly article in which Leila Sales claimed that absent parents in children’s literature are symptomatic of laziness on the part of the author. Having written such a book himself Nathan disputed the claim, arguing that children need to imagine a world without parents in order to learn how to be adults.
Still on the subject of family, the Guardian published an article about relatives as writing teams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s more common to find a son or daughter working with/taking over from a parent than it is to come across husband-and-wife teams. More surprisingly, given that musical sibling pairs are pretty much ubiquitous, there isn’t a single instance of a sibling writing team in Alison Flood’s list. I can’t think of any, either.
And finally: I hate to remind you all, but we’re only a few short weeks away from November and NaNoWriMo. With this in mind, Andrea Allison posted a heap of useful links to online writing tools on Write Anything. Bookmarked!
