This Guardian article, separated into Parts 1 and 2 for length, is the fattest chunk of writers' advice to other fiction writers I've ever seen. After starting with Elmore Leonard's classic 10 tips, they solicited other contemporary authors who submitted their own 10, or 5, or 1 in some cases.
Remember, if you sit at your desk for 15 or 20 years, every day, not counting weekends, it changes you. It just does. It may not improve your temper, but it fixes something else. It makes you more free.- Anne Enright
Try to think of others' good luck as encouragement to yourself.- Richard Ford
When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.- Jonathan Franzen
Never go to a TV personality festival masquerading as a literary festival.- David Hare
Remember writing doesn't love you. It doesn't care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.- AL Kennedy
Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant.- Hilary Mantel
Think big and stay particular.- Andrew Motion
You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished.- Will Self
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6 comments:
Thank you for serving a few select bites ;)
I skimmed the post until I felt constipated, but I am glad I got through Atwood´s hilarious advice.
Elmore Leonard´s left me annoyed and tired, though. Can such rigid commandments really be helpful?
Thanks for writing about this, Clare. I've been listening to people talking about it all week but never took the time to look at it until now. It really is an excellent collection of tips.
Like Elaine, I've been reading *about* the article and I skimmed it, but like Dorte I couldn't read all of it. I do like to see the bits others find entertaining, however.
Dorte: With this many authors contributing, they might have done it as a pithy weekly feature in their books section for half a year! Still, comparing the big old wad of thoughts did provide me some points of interest.
Elmore Leonard makes his own rules by now, and if you don't write like him, I figure you may not need them. I usually think rules are most helpful when people are feeling lost and need a lighthouse in the fog. That's why being able to find a rule within this article for absolutely anything you'd like to believe is so nice : )
Elaine and Laura- Color me uninformed, as usual! Having not heard *about* it from the hip kids, I jumped right in with no idea of what a commitment of eyestrain it would be. Sheesh.
classic -- printed and posted above my desk :)
wait, hmmm, you haven't killed yourself, right? :)
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