I got diverted this week by the.. twitteriness.. of Twitter. It is, after all a social network. So as well as posting writing links, I found myself engaging in a feud about cats and hats, and ultimately cats in hats. Along the way I came up with reasons why writing is like sex, and posted far too many altogether uninteresting progress reports on my daily wordcount target.
All this digression may have been influenced by reading Grace Dent’s excellent and very funny book about the network (How to Leave Twitter).
I have also just embarked on one of my periodic US trips, so the writing-related links might be a little more sparse this time round.
some tough love from Alex Epstein (Crafty TV Writing – recommended) in response to an unsolicited request for advice.
Nina Badzin’s Twitter basics: “No pictures of your cat”. *sigh* my cat is so much better looking than I am. I did change my cat avatar – a controversial decision as it turned out. In taking new cat photographs I invoked the spirit of Mrs Slocombe but don’t watch the video if you’re not a fan of infantile innuendo
Moving from cats to dogs: Chris Dolley had me at ‘Zaphod’, but this tale of a dog’s life is lovely enough without the hook. Zaphod’s Last Run
Some found graffiti, which suggests just because you know how to write doesn’t always mean you should. Still, possibly the name of my new band. If I could sing or play an instrument.
Charles Stross in Q&A at session at Apple HQ (videos).
An Anne Patchett piece on writing became available in Kindle format, discussed at LATimes’ Jacket Coy
Log your activities, and find time to write you didn’t know you had: quickwritingtips – #writing
“You can learn a lot of things from a great first page (also from a bad first page…)” – Maggie Stiefvater (link dead)
Formula for a compelling plot. With examples. RT @CDaleyAuthor: On the blog: The Plot Skeleton.
less fun alone? over too fast? overexposed? sometimes messy? How #Writing is Like Sex - Psychology Today
Neil Gaiman quotes Gene Woolf: “You never learn how to write a novel… You only learn to write the novel you’re on.”
How do you keep conflict alive when you’re only going to meet the nemesis at the end? GITS on True Grit
