On Writing

Five Books
How to Write~14 min read · May 21st · The journalist and editor Eric Olsen takes us inside the writing process and reveals who gives the best advice for aspiring authors
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She emphasises again and again just how important it is for a writer to read. And to read not only good writers, but bad writers as well. Stephen King says the same thing.
Writer's Digest
How To Write Killer Characters5 min read · Jun 13th · Developing characters as fully formed, three-dimensional people requires patience, observation, and knowing what to put on the page and what to keep off. Here, author Marnie Riches shares how to write…
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freddiedeboer.substack.com
Pity Writing Studies, the Field That Hates Itself20+ min read · May 17th · In 2009 I found myself in my late 20s, broke, and trying to get a job in the teeth of the post-financial crisis employment depression. I had applied to hundreds of positions, entry-level and low…
Reader View · Shared by 9, including Rick Powell, Steven Pinker
Reedsy
How to Plan a Novel: From Idea to First Draft in 7 Tips10 min read · Feb 14th · Have an exciting book idea that you want to work on? Hold your horses and discover how to plan a novel before jumping into the actual writing!
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Quillette
James Baldwin and the Trouble with Protest Literature20+ min read · 2021-12-21 · “The hardest thing in the world to do,” wrote Ernest Hemingway in a 1934 article for Esquire, “is to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the subject; then you have to…
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literaryreview.co.uk
Joanna Kavenna - Have You Considered Accountancy?2021-12-03 · For People Who Devour Books Subscribe Today! Sign In Register Help Friday 3rd December, 2021
Shared by 6, including Rick Powell, Tom Vanderbilt
freddiedeboer.substack.com
If You Want to Make It As a Writer, For God's Sakes, Be Weird~13 min read · 2021-03-30 · you're in a market, so sell something other people aren't
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freddiedeboer.substack.com
It Could Be So Much Better Than This9 min read · 2021-11-26 · you get what you allow
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Literary Hub
A Revolution in Creativity: On Slow Writing9 min read · 2021-10-12 · “If creativity is about power to create something from nothing, then believing in impossible things is its most critical component.” –Oli Mould, Against Creativity * I’ll invite you to read this sl…
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Slow writing is passionate engagement, an intensified focus, a process that nurtures the creative artist.
The New Yorker
The Most Ambitious Diary in History7 min read · 2021-11-01 · Claude Fredericks, a Bennington classics professor, knew Anaïs Nin and James Merrill, and taught Donna Tartt. He kept a diary for eight decades, and persuaded many in his orbit that he was writing a…
Reader View · Shared by 41, including BenYT, Steve Silberman, Rick Powell, Kyle Chayka
The New Republic
The Afterlives of E.M. Forster~16 min read · 2021-09-21 · For decades, Forster could not publish his novel of gay love, “Maurice.” Its importance in his work and to the writers he nurtured is only just becoming clear.
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Guardian Books
Top 10 gripes in literature5 min read · 2021-08-25 · Some distrust kvetching in print, but writers from Shakespeare to Valerie Solanas show there’s nothing wrong with constructive – and even destructive – criticism
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Brain Pickings
Chekhov on the Ultimate Task of Art and How (Not) to Be a Writer2 min read · 2021-09-02 · On solving problems vs. posing questions.
Reader View · Shared by 263, including davidabrock, Rick Powell, Charles Duhigg
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“Anyone who says that the artist’s sphere leaves no room for questions, but deals exclusively with answers, has never done any writing or done anything with imagery.”
Every
Chaotic Good~15 min read · 2021-07-20 · Or, how to stop hating yourself and start writing.
Reader View · Shared by 92, including Rick Powell, Thomas Power, Katja Evertz, Rachel Jepsen, Dan Shipper, Chloe Abrasada
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The best way to do that is to embrace the chaos within! I swear to you, if you want to get better at self-editing, you need to get better at the chaos part first. 
Open Culture
Umberto Eco’s 36 Rules for Writing Well (in English or Italian)3 min read · 2021-06-18 · Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland Umberto Eco knew a great many things. Indeed too many things, at least according to his critics:
Reader View · Shared by 167, including Howard Getson, Rick Powell, Esther Schindler, Katja Evertz
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Hold those quotes. Emerson aptly said, “I hate quotes. Tell me only what you know.”
Adam Thomas
Quarterly ReviewReader View · Shared by 180, including Muhammad Bashir Umar, Marie-José Kolly, Pieter van Diggele, Lynda, Rick Powell
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personal development
Summary, by the author
Begin writing with something you believe in, a truth that will surprise others.
Write about something you are nervous to tell other people. Make yourself vulnerable.
Place people at the heart of your writing, even if you are working on non-fiction.
Don't worry about misquoting, or using a little poetic license.
The more structured your writing, the more risks you can take with the expansiveness of your language.
Good structure starts with a throughline.
Spend more time planning than you want to. Spend at least 50% of your time noting and outlining.
Listen to your readers. Make yourself approachable.
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