Words of Wisdom on Writing


10 Writing Rules from Elmore Leonard
drawing by Austin Kleon

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To SASE on Not To SASE that is THE Question.

Ok, I think too much digital ink and time has been spilled on the subject but since Ms. Snark didn't post my comment on her blog, I feel drawn into the fray. For those few of you who don't know an SASE is a self addressed stamped envelope usually requested or required by agents, publishers, magazines, and others for inclusion with any submittals of work for review. This morning, the blogshere is a buzz with two opposing views, one by rising author Joe Konrath , and the other by anonomous literary agent, Miss Snark . And the comment I made that was not posted: "A Tale of Two Tragedies: First, a good writer fails to find the good agent because an SASE is not included in the submittal and the agent refuses to read writer's work. Second, a good agent fails to find the good writer because the writer didn't include an SASE. What a shitty plot. You decide." Ok, I gave her qudos for her reading 100 synopses, but quashing freedom of speech -that's just wrong. Ok, m
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Life . . . as we know it

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There's a revolution going on. It doesn't feel like it. It rarely does, but there is. Life, as we know it, is changing very dramatically and very quickly. All of us will feel the changes. Writers and artists are feeling the first effects. As we moved from an agrarian society to an industrial society, from the horse and buggy to the car, telegraph to the telephone, many workers, jobs, and technologies were replaced and disrupted. Some industries and workers transitioned effortlessly. Others were trampled or left behind. The current rapid advancements of technology are making businesses obsolete at a record pace. So comes the Creative Age, or what some have called the Information Age. We've been in the Information age for about twenty years. But now, the useable products are coming to the marketplace in a big way. The convergence that all the techno talking heads have been hawking for years is finally producing real products; the Blackberry and Ipod for example. The Creative
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Writing and the Blues, The Cedell Davis Story

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What moves you? Art? Music? Literature? Life? Blues and writing have many parallels. What does "The Blues" have to do with writing? I saw the Bluesman Cedell Davis' story in the documentary You See Me Laughin' and it moved me, deeply. Emotionally. Cedell Davis was born into the poverty and racism of the Mississippi Delta in 1927. He learned to play the harminica and guitar at an early age but between the ages of nine and ten he was struck down with Polio. His hands atrophied from disease, he was no longer able to play guitar or harmonica. He was right handed and unfortunately, Polio took complete use of it. Not knowing there were rules, norms, and conventions in music, it took Cedell two years to rethink and retool the way he played guitar. Since he couldn't use his right hand, he flipped the guitar over and began to play left handed, upside down. Because his left hand was afflicted as well, he adapted a butter knife to use as a slide, and different tuning to al
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