“Perfect Kills Published”
An article by Chris Brogan on writing that complements what I wrote this morning.
“Put your words into something so that you can look at them outside of your head.“
Why it’s ok to be obvious
I get occasional feedback that what I said or wrote was obvious. “I liked that post Scott, but it I’ve heard it before” or “Chapter 5 was interesting, but there’s nothing new here.” I’ve learned this can be an empty critique. Here’s why:
Never Ending Pencil
To cut a long story short, what we have here is a simple writing tool called the Continuous Pencil, which can be used till the very end. We usually end up discarding pencil stubs…I know my children waste too many saying that short pencils are uncomfortable to hold. So basically you keep increasing the length of your stubs with a handy interim-headless-long stick that fits snugly into its rear. Quite simple and straight, but is it a refinement of the 1 + 1 Pencil?
Writing Fiction Online
I read quite a lot of fiction, and in recent years I’ve taken to reading a fair bit of it online during odd moments; maybe a chapter of an amateur novel with lunch, or some fan fiction while waiting for the coffee to brew.
Writing a Book: Part Two (Structure)
I’ve always wanted to be a great writer, but nobody’s ever explained how. So I tried to figure out for myself. I reread my favorite books, I read just about everything by David Foster Wallace and Robert Caro, I read a lot of New Yorker articles, I got caught up on n+1. I read a lot of stuff out loud, to get a feel for the sound of the voice. (I performed all the brief interviews (including the powerful “On His Deathbed…”) in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men — incredible fun; I can completely see why it made John Krasinski want to become an actor.) In fact, it got to the point where I couldn’t resist reading things out loud — some writing just begged to be performed.