Vonnegut on how to write a short story

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them–in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Read more and watch the video at openculture.com: http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/kurt_vonneguts_eight_tips_on_how_to_write_a_good_short_story.html

I am NEVER ever guilty of tip number 6. No, no. Not me.

We’ve added years to life, not life to years...

‎"We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much. 

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. 

We’ve added years to life, not life to years."

- George Carlin 1937 - 2008

Fantasy Writing

I am not about to go writing all out fantasy, but this blog struck true, and I am an old Pratchett fan and a new Gaimen fan. Go read it and my other fellow bloggers over on Mslexia: http://www.mslexia.co.uk/blog/2012/01/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-dragons/

Go on and write

"You can write twice as well now as you ever could. All you need to do is write truly and not care about what the fate of it is. 

Go on and write. "


On May 10th of 1934, a month after the publication of his new novel, Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his friend, Ernest Hemingway, and asked for his honest opinion on the book — a tale about Dick and Nicole Diver, a couple based largely on mutual acquaintances of both Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Gerald and Sara Murphy.

Hemingway certainly responded with honesty. His engrossing reply — a letter that contains plenty of advice for any writer — can be read below.


READ MORE: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/04/forget-your-personal-tragedy.html

A L Kennedy: Why I hate the myth of the suffering artist

'It is absurd and insulting to assume artists are assisted by despair or hunger in a way that, say, plumbers are not'


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/apr/02/myth-of-the-suffering-artist

Home of the Future

In the first episode, the family discover what rest and relaxation will be like, as they road test some of the latest sleep-enabling gadgets, designed to help them fall asleep quicker, stay asleep longer, stop snoring, and monitor the quality of their kip. There are even brainwave-controlled meditation games.

The programme also reveals what a fully automated house is like, with everything from the blinds and the lights to the music and the TV controlled from a 'smart' device. And forget about a front door key; the house now has a computer-controlled thumb print door entry system!

For the first time, youngest son Leon gets a space all to himself - a bedroom in the garden - while mum Michele tries out the latest driver-aided cars, which do the difficult job of parallel parking for her, and presenter Chris finds out about the future of driverless cars.

There are also robot lawnmowers that cut the grass by themselves and a mini power station installed in the house to provide electricity for the new technological toys.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/home-of-the-future/4od

Panorama: Hunting the Internet Bullies

Online bullying is rapidly growing in size and intensity. A new breed of self-styled "trolls" are stalking social networking websites, aiming their vicious attacks at victims who range from TV celebrities to grieving teenagers.

Declan Lawn meets X Factor star Cher Lloyd, who describes how cyber attacks are ruining her life, and highlights a new survey revealing that one in thirteen young people face persistent online bullying. Panorama tracks down some of the bullies and asks: what more could be done to stop them?



http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c00y3/Panorama_Hunting_the_Internet_Bullies/

Is online dating destroying love?

Online dating is now one of the most common ways to start a relationship. But is it fulfilling our dreams – or shattering our cherished ideal of romance?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/06/is-online-dating-destroying-love

It's okay to not like things

Author Name

‎'To get your author name take your first and last name, write a book, get it published and put your name on the cover.' #stillamusedbythis  @WstonesOxfordSt

25 Things Writers Should Start Doing

'Don’t just put your nose against the grindstone: rub your entire naked body against the grindstone. And then film it. And put it on Youtube.'


http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/17/25-things-writers-should-start-doing/

Reality Check

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/jan/12/internet-health


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/12/friend-obsessed-with-sex

Susie Wild: Reading and Q&A Session

Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 5.10pm


Roderic Bowen Library and Archives Reading Room, Lampeter Campus, University of Wales Trinity Saint David 


Susie Wild is a writer, poet, editor and journalist based in South Wales. She shall read from her Edge Hill long-listed debut collection of short stories The Art of Contraception, her ebook novella Arrivals and her current novel-in-progress for which she was a recipient of a Literature Wales Bursary in 2011.

She will also take part in a Q&A about life as a writer and editor, including advice on submitting manuscripts to Parthian Books.

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/278269932230750/

A tolerance for your own crudeness

Philip Roth, in 2003. "Over the years," he observed, looking back on his career on his 70th birthday, "what you develop is a tolerance for your own crudeness. And patience with your own crap, really. Belief in your crap, which is just 'stay with your crap and it will get better, and come back every day and keep going'."


https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/books/2008/sep/20/robertharris.writing.fiction

John Naughton's top 10 books about the internet

From novels to manifestos and jeremiads, the author and academic selects the best reading about the network that is shaping our world.

Also:


In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood’s essays on the origins of science fiction show she is as much a keen reader as she is a creator, says Kevin Barry.

Toxic

'the Web . . . is . . . toxic to the kind of concentration fiction writing requires. It’s difficult to write good sentences and simultaneously buy shoes.' -- Wells Tower

Mimbo the iPhone robot will smile for you, still doesn't get your 'Seinfeld' references

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/03/mimbo-the-iphone-robot-will-smile-for-you-still-doesnt-get-you/

IF I DIE/ 1000 MEMORIES

'Now, you're probably thinking to yourself I don't remember scheduling an appointment with death any time soon, and you're right, but so is death right...around the corner.'

If I die. What would you leave behind?

Cheerful.

http://ifidie.net/

http://1000memories.com/about

NOTE TO SELF: 25 THINGS WRITERS SHOULD STOP DOING (RIGHT FUCKING NOW)

"That story isn’t going to unfuck itself."

More: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/03/25-things-writers-should-stop-doing/

In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession

South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang,” dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner.

But such ready access to the Web has come at a price as legions of obsessed users find that they cannot tear themselves away from their computer screens.

Compulsive Internet use has been identified as a mental health issue in other countries, including the United States. However, it may be a particularly acute problem in South Korea because of the country’s nearly universal Internet access.

It has become a national issue here in recent years, as users started dropping dead from exhaustion after playing online games for days on end. A growing number of students have skipped school to stay online, shockingly self-destructive behavior in this intensely competitive society.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/technology/18rehab.html?pagewanted=all

That Novel You're Workin' On

The Joy of Quiet

'In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.'


Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?pagewanted=all