Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 57
March 2, 2011
My Advice for Writing x 10
In the spirit of the post below, where luminaries provide their rules of fiction, I thought I would come up with my 10 bits of advice on writing. If you'd like to take this meme and run with it, please do! Let me know in the comments, and I'll link to it. (BTW, it is 9:33 am and I should be writing…)
1. Don't use your blog as a way of procrastinating. (I don't follow this rule. I procrastinate every morning until 9:30 or even 10:30. Don't follow my example.)
2. Read lots. This is not procrastinating. Honest. It's honing one's craft. Or something like that.
3. You have the right to earn a living. Writing is hard work. Therapists make $100 to $200 an hour whether or not their clients feel like it's working.
4. Be proud that you write. You're a producer. You aren't just shoving paper around. You aren't a service provider to someone who may or may not benefit from it. You are creating something from nothing. And then it is read and enjoyed. What can be better?
5. Question all the things that society tells writers. Why does a book have to sell a million copies for a writer to feel worthwhile? Does a doctor have to cure half the patients in the world? Does a dentist have to fill a million teeth or a lawyer represent a million clients? (At least the dentist's patients go away without a toothache!)
6. You only go through this life once. You might have other lives (we'll leave that as an open question), but this one is unique. If you have an urge to write, do it. If you have an urge to travel, swim, have kids, sew, bungee jump (well maybe not that one), do it. Why not?
7. When it comes to love, people say there is an old shoe for every sock, a cover for every pot. There is a reader for every book. I don't know how many, but there is at least one and that one is you. Is it worth it?
8. Writing changes you. At least it changes me, every time. This is how I grow in the world. It isn't the only way, but it's one of the most important.
9. Writing is my gift. Is it yours? That is no guarantee of fame or fortune. Nor is there a way to measure how great a gift it is. But everyone has gifts, and we are here to express them.
10. At the end of the day, we die. Can we say we did our best? Can we say we did all we could with who we were in this life? Yes. I am certain you can. That's all anyone can ask and if that includes writing, you'll know it. It's now 9:50 am. I'm off to write.
Filed under: Literary, Personal Tagged: advice on writing
March 1, 2011
no adults please, new book website for children only
research carried out for World Book Day suggests that a growing number of teenagers are using the new technologies not just to chat to friends but for serious reading. From a sample of 505 teens aged between 13 and 18, 40.8% had read a book on a computer, nearly one in five (17.2%) had read one on a mobile phone, and 13.3% on a Tablet or iPad.
via guardian.co.uk
The Guardian's new website will be divided into 3 age groups–see the link above for more information.
Filed under: Miscellany
February 28, 2011
the girl who struck out Babe Ruth
In 1931, Kenneshaw Mountain Landis, the first commissioner of organized baseball declared women unfit to play baseball, as the sport was "too strenuous" (and the MLB officially banned women from signing contracts in 1952). This announcement came the day after a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell, who played on a minor league team, struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game.
via fanniesroom.blogspot.com
I hadn't heard of Jackie Mitchell before–but I should have. And now I know who she is thanks to Fannie's Room.
Filed under: Miscellany
how metaphors impact reality: is crime a beast or a virus?
In a series of five experiments, Paul Thibodeau and Lera Boroditsky from Stanford University have shown how influential metaphors can be. They can change the way we try to solve big problems like crime. They can shift the sources that we turn to for information. They can polarise our opinions to a far greater extent than, say, our political leanings. And most of all, they do it under our noses. Writers know how powerful metaphors can be, but it seems that most of us fail to realise their influence in our everyday lives.
via blogs.discovermagazine.com
In these experiments, students read the same crime reports with one difference. The reports either referred to crime as a wild beast lurking in neighbourhoods or as a virus infecting and plaguing neighbourhoods.
Students who read crime referred to as a beast were much more likely to opt for more police and prisons, while those who that crime was a virus were more likely to opt for social reforms.
The metaphor used had a greater impact in this than did the students' political affiliation. As writers, we believe in the power of the word. Now we have scientific evidence.
Choose carefully.
Filed under: Miscellany
how well can we communicate emotions purely through touch?
A 2006 study by Matthew Hertenstein demonstrated that strangers could accurately communicate the 'universal' emotions of anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy, purely through touches to the forearm, but not the 'prosocial' emotions of surprise, happiness and sadness, nor the 'self-focused' emotions of embarrassment, envy and pride. Now Erin Thompson and James Hampton have added to this nascent literature by comparing the accuracy of touch-based emotional communication between strangers and between those who are romantically involved.
via bps-research-digest.blogspot.com
Yes, the romantic couples did communicate better, especially self-focused feelings. But how isn't obvious. When looking at the tapes, researchers didn't see them appear to do anything differently. Perhaps it's the subtle clues that we can pick up from our partners almost instantly, like thoughts.
Filed under: Miscellany
February 27, 2011
half a dodo found in museum drawer
Yes half, and a rare find anyway. Better than the zebra that was really a donkey. http://ow.ly/44sBZ
Filed under: Miscellany
February 26, 2011
why they write about grief
Joyce Carol Oates and Meghan O'Rourke in coversation about their memoirs – NYTimes.com http://ow.ly/447wN
Filed under: Miscellany
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