Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Blog-blindness & 'How-to' books

Blog-blindness
Yesterday I was looking forward to getting home so I could post something here, but by the time I got to it, late at night, my brain was frazzled. I looked for something already written but got sucked into editing so an hour later and too tired to think, I shut down having posted nothing.

Thinking about it today I recognised that I was probably suffering from temporary 'blog-blindness', similar to 'white paper syndrome'. All that white space...

How-to books
In a UK Writing magazine ( Writers' Forum Issue #90 March 2009 ) they have a two-page article titled 'Can a book teach you how to write?'
Arguments are presented for and against, but it closes on a distinct 'against' note, suggesting that the best solution of all is to re-read good books analytically.

I myself am of the 'By-the-Book Wrimo' character type, from this years Nanowrimo Board ( http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3025086 )

Loren D Estleman is an author who has 50+ books published. In his own how-to book, 'Writing the Popular Novel' he says that people often ask him whether or not they should have an agent. His reply:
"Do I need an agent? -No.
Should I have an agent? -You'd be a fool not to."

And in reply to the question about how-to books I would say the same applies:
Do I need to study how-to books? -No.

Should I study how-to books? -You'd be a fool not to.

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