In 1940, John Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. In 1962 he was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The same year he wrote a letter to actor and fellow writer Robert Wallsten, in which he offered six tips on writing. Continue reading Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
alter ego:
a second self or different version of oneself, such as
a :a trusted friend
b :the opposite side of a personality – Clark Kent and his alter ego Superman
c: a fictional character that is the author’s alter ego
Literature is the lie that tells the truth. Or so they say. That’s why sometimes writers choose to use alter egos. Ernest Hemingway wrote the so-called Nick Adams stories, John Updike had Rabbit Angstrom and Henry Bech, Bukowski had Henry Chinaski.
But why? Continue reading TMM: alter ego
Ah, the (in)famous writer’s block, also known as creative bankruptcy.
It’s by far the most hated aspect of being a writer.
Sometimes it’s so severe that it makes you doubt your abilities, maybe even doubt whether being a writer is worth it.
What am I going to write about?
I could almost hear a lot of writers thinking that it would be better to fake their own deaths rather than try to find a satisfactory answer to this question.
Maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic. Just a bit.
So, yeah, how do you overcome writer’s block?
Continue reading Book Review: The Autumn of the Patriarch by G.G. Marquez
“Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman’s name out of a satire, then wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized, anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to be a writer -and if so, why?” – Bennett Cerf
Some of the world’s most famous writers have been addicts, abusing almost anything, from coffee and alcohol to sex and drugs. They often wrote about their addictions, about the way the human conditions is degraded by them.
Here’s a short list of famous writers and their vices: Continue reading Famous Writers and Their Addictions
The King has always been the sort of writer who can release one bestseller after another. He has sold more than 350 million copies of his works.
Wouldn’t that be nice? To be able to sell that many books? To be that productive?
Well, in 2002 King temporarily gave up on writing horror novels, and wrote a little book chronicling his rise to fame and discussing exactly what he believes it takes to become a good writer. Since then, it’s become the most popular book about writing ever written, which is understandable.
On Writing is not only about the basics of writing, and something that you should approach as a craft, but also a passion. Other writing books are focused on the mechanics of the written word, while King shows you how to capture the joy of the craft.
Yes, this little book will make you want to write, not for fame or fortune, but because it’s fun, and there’s nothing else you would rather do.
If I could recommend only one book to aspiring writers, On Writing would be it. But don’t take my word for it. Below, I’ve compiled a list of his best advice from the book, and I also wrote down some of my own thoughts on exactly how they apply to aspiring writers. Continue reading Stephen King’s 10 Best Tips for Becoming a Phenomenal Writer
“Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.” —Ray Bradbury
The first story the Writer ever shared with fellow human beings was unanimously hated by said humans. One of them said, about the Writer, that he was either a retard or fourteen years old.
But he kept writing. One bad story after another. He kept reading, as if to accumulate all the words the Great Writers, the ones before him, had ever put down on paper. Continue reading The Writer: Episode #7
