Apologies if this is only semi-coherent. It’s based on a set of thoughts that have been composting for a while. I want to post them before they rot entirely…

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I used to not have a lot of respect for writers who had trouble remembering the details [...]

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It is a well-established fact that any writer, in possession of a manuscript, must also be in need of readers to review and critique his or her work. However, actually getting those critiques – and then deciding what to do with them once you have [...]

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My wife cleans one room at a time. This, she insists, is the normal, the sane way to clean a house. You start with one room, you pick things up, you sort things, and then you vacuum (or mop, as the case may be). And [...]

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Think about what passes through your mind when you’re reading a story. Do you see pictures illustrating the various scenes? A movie, perhaps?
Most people have a largely visual response to written text. Some of us, however, are more auditorily inclined. In my case, when I [...]

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Edward Gorey – in a marvelous little piece titled The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel – describes the conditions under which his protagonist writes: “Mr Earbrass belongs to the straying, rather than to the sedentary, type of author. He is never to [...]

Here’s #4 in Jonathan Langford’s series The Writing Rookie. Don’t miss an awesome usage of the word ’stroppier.’ ~Wm
Author’s Note: This is adapted from something I sent out as part of an occasional print-blog series that gets mailed to miscellaneous family and friends. Just so you know.
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In this edition of Jonathan Langford’s guest column The Writing Rookie he describes a phenomenon I know well — it is an odd combination. Click here for the list of columns in the series. ~Wm
Walking (I believe I once read) is a process of continually falling and catching oneself. Always, at every point [...]

Here it is — part two of Jonathan Langford’s writing rookie series. Also see: Part 1 ~Wm
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How quickly should you write, if you want to succeed as a writer? Answer: More quickly than I do.

One of the things I found dispiriting, back a few years [...]