Chris Stralyn's Blog, page 10

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #28 -Create an Anthology of Your Favorite Literature

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #28 -Create an Anthology of Your Favorite Literature.” Get  yourself a notebook and fill it with scraps of words. These are the indispensable texts. Your bible of crafted scripture. Here lie the sentences that inspire you to write. Find one good sentence and copy it down. Make a page of such sentences. Whole paragraphs even. Copy them. Articles from a magazine,  handouts from an English class. Use only writing you want to keep and enshrine  in your personal anthology. Call it Stone Soup for the Mind. Filled with fresh and healthful contributions from the world’s great thinkers.”

Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #27- Keep A “Read-In-Progress” Nearby

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #27- Keep A “Read-In-Progress” Nearby. “If you go anywhere,  take a book with a pen wedged between the pages instead of some fancy-dancy bookmark. This is so you can underline and make notes. Marginalia might lead to manuscripts.”



Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule#26- Always Have a Notebook and Pen on Hand

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule#26- Always Have a Notebook and Pen on Hand. “You know why.  You’re a writer. Sometimes you feel like the last rhinoceros in the Jumanji  stampede. This will help you gain on the rest of your competitors: Work all the  time.”

Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #25- Borrow From Your Favorite Writers

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #25- Borrow From Your Favorite Writers. “Other writers, past and present, are your models and your competition. You have to read them to beat them, and you do that by using their heads as stepping stones. Only by taking art from a master and reprocessing it as your own will you achieve your destiny. Athletes and musicians do this all the time, replicating movements and riffs they admire, doing them over hundreds of times  and embellishing upon the originals. Imitation is not just the sincerest form  of flattery - it’s the sincerest form of learning.”
 
Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor  Goldsberry,  (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #24- Keep Yourself Open to Serendipity.

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #24- Keep Yourself Open to Serendipity. “Say you mistype a  word, or mishear what someone said, but it inspires you. You meant to type pigs,  but wrote pits instead. It leads you to compose a children’s story about a cast-off peach pit, olive pit, and mango pit becoming friends. The Three Little Pits. Serendipity, strange coincidences, can lead to great ideas for your  writing. Consider these things as subtle gifts from the muses.”

Taken from  The  Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #23- Seek the Wisdom of Others

Writer’s  Wisdom -Rule #23- Seek the Wisdom of Others. “Critique groups bring you into contact with talented writers. Join one. Share your work, and have others share theirs with you. Unlike criticism offered by friends and family, you’ll receive unbiased feedback from fellow craftsmen. Learn from their suggestions and from their mistakes.”

Taken from The  Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor  Goldsberry, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #22- Practice Mechanical Learning

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #22- Practice Mechanical Learning.  “An exercise:  copy the  first 1000 words of your favorite book, word for word. Copy it longhand. Then  sit at the keyboard and type it up. What this exercise does is get you on the  same spiritual course that your author charted, following the precise physical  motions he used to produce the masterpiece.  Consciously, you won’t get it.  Consciously it may seem like a stupid waste of time. But after you do it, you’ll  sense its value by instinct.”  

Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor  Goldsberry,  (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #21- Ignore the length of Your First Draft

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #21- Ignore the length of Your First  Draft. “A piece of writing is organic, like a tree. It grows to maturity, to its adult size, and stops all by itself. So when you’re working on your first draft, indulge in its beguiling nuances, in its open space and infinite possibility. Write as much as you want. On your second draft however, pruning is essential.  It can be tough, but you have to get mean and discipline yourself. Trees bear more fruit when trimmed.”

Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry,  (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #20- Think of Your 1st Draft as a Blue-Book Essay Exam

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #20- Think of Your 1st Draft as a Blue-Book Essay Exam.
“You remember the blue books teachers used to pass out for exams? You would crack one open when your instructor said, “Begin,” and you wrote as fast as  your mind could move the pencil. Barely thinking. Scribbling until your  penmanship went all awobble.  You only  had an hour to finish, so you wrote. Fast. Do the same with your first draft.  Get that whole draft done from start to finish. Then worry about making it perfect.”

Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry,  (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #19- Produce Multiple Drafts

Writer’s Wisdom -Rule #19- Produce Multiple Drafts.  “The first draft is the down draft. You just get it all down. The second draft is the up draft. You fix it all up. The third draft is the open door draft. It’s the one you actually let others see. However... Writers early in their careers will need many more than three drafts. Ten is advised.”


Taken from The Writer’s Book of Wisdom - 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft, by Steven Taylor Goldsberry,  (http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Boo...)