Joss Whedon's Top 10 Writing Tips - Anyone who knows me (and let's be frank, that's most of you!) knows of my abiding love of Buffy and all things Joss. These tips are tailored for screenplays, but the basic principles are relevant. (And anyway, who among us fiction writers doesn't have a secret ambition to try writing a screenplay someday? Or, say, a secret ambition that flits across our dollar-sign eyeballs after a screening of a particular dismal rom-com...?)
An essay about prizes by Hilary Mantel - Hilary Mantel just won the Man Booker again, for Bring Up the Bodies, her sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the Booker in 2009. This is a piece from 2010. I've heard some pretty strong endorsements of Wolf Hall (er, as if the Booker isn't enough), but I have my own weird and foolish hang-ups about historical novels and a kdisinclination for Tudor England in particular, so I haven't picked it up yet. But I love Mantel's voice in this essay -- now I'm interested in tracking down a copy of her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost.
and lastly, a review of Neil Young's memoir, which creates a portrait of the artist as a non-reader.
2 comments:
Lot of good lines in Mantel's essay, but I think this is my favourite:
'You don't ask a plumber, what makes you plumb? You understand he does it to get his living. You don't draw him aside and say, "Actually I plumb a bit myself, would you take a look at this loo I fitted? All my friends say it's rather good."'
I know. It seems churlish to complain about, and yet...
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