Vonnegut on “Writing With Style”
Here’s a great essay by Kurt Vonnegut on writing with style. He breaks it down into seven simple steps. My favorite is number seven: “Pity the readers”. Lord, how I pity my readers.
Thsrs
Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story in six words, and claimed it was the best thing he ever wrote. None of the words was more that two syllables long.
If you’d like to write like Hemmingway, try “Thsrs”. It’s a thesaurus that only returns shorter, simpler words.
A Few Freelancing Tips
For all the readers out there who either 1) are working in the field as writers or illustrators, or 2) aspire to do so some day, here are a few helpful links aimed at the professional side of things.
17 Tips for Freelancers:
http://megillustrations.typepad.com/…
Chris Garret: “My Top 5 Biggest Freelancing Mistakes”:
http://freelancefolder.com/my-top-5…
How to disarm 10 difficult client observations/requests:
Writer’s and Illustrator’s Block
I had a little bit of an epiphany today - nothing big, but helpful nonetheless. I’ve had Merlin Mann’s article on “Hacking Your Way Out of Writer’s Block” in my favorites for a long time, and I’ve been meaning to post a link. Merlin runs a great site called 43 Folders dedicated to making your work more efficient and getting things done.
Lester Dent’s Pulp Fiction Master Plot
Lester Dent was a hugely prolific writer of mystery, western, and pulp fiction novels, the most famous being the Doc Savage series in the 1940’s-50’s. In this essay, he lays out the basic rules for constructing a rip-roaring, knockdown adventure story that will leave the reader reeling.
The ideas in the essay are great, but the best part is Dent’s prose; his teaching style is straight out of one of his novels. Here’s an excerpt, where he talks about building suspense and moving the plot along:
“Hero should accomplish something with his tearing around, if only to rescue Eloise, and surprise! Eloise is a ring-tailed monkey. The hero counts the rings on Eloise’s tail, if nothing better comes to mind. They’re not real. The rings are painted there. Why?”
Why indeed? Dynamite stuff!
How To Write a Book: The Short, Honest Truth
This short article by Scott Berkun does a really good job of cutting through the mystique of what it means to be an author. Want to write a book? Read this first.
