Wait until next year

Putting off what could be done tomorrow, today

Category: reading and writing

Pay The Writer? Don’t Pay The Writer?

What with being around five years behind the rest of the internet, I only recently watched this video from the writer Harlan Ellison, ranting at expectations that writers need not be paid for their work. It is a pretty funny rant, but pretty flawed. I found it kind of funny that the keeps using the word “essay” rather than the correct phrase “filmed interview about a TV programme” to make a point about being paid for his work, as if his every utterance is on a par with a carefully constructed and argued piece of writing. I have no problem with him wanting paying for everything and anything he does, that’s up to him, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves – talking about Babylon Five is hardly on a par with the finest literature. Read the rest of this entry »

Slow Thinking

Miss Coal Queen 1973, with a Morris Marina

I’ve always had a hunch that proof is better than assumption. Which is a pretty silly hunch to have, if you think about it. Or a rather sensible one, I don’t know. Maybe I should test it or something. Read the rest of this entry »

Writing notes

Old Notebook Paper

I was catching up on my Instapaper reading this morning, working my way through articles I’ve chanced across on the internet and decided to ‘Read Later’. I know I’ve spoken of Instapaper before, but I think it is such a great tool for making the most of longer-form articles on the web. I kind of see it as an attempt to make my internet (where I’ll save it) and mobile phone (where I’ll read it) activity just a little more nourishing and worthwhile. Or to feel a little less like I waste my life staring at daft stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

Zero to Fifty Thousand

A man typing at a very small desk

I’m afraid this is yet another one of those posts where I bleat on and on about writing without actually doing any of it. Well, of course, I am writing, but I’m writing about writing, which I could pass off as some sort of meta exercise, or as a meditation on the creative process, but it is nearer to an act of public self-absorption, or at least an avoidance of writing about something more worthwhile than the act of writing itself. Read the rest of this entry »

How To Blog In Ten Easy Steps By Going Down The How Not To Blog Route

Three people around an old computer. One of them is Princess Anne. It is the eighties.

As I may have alluded to in the past I used to frequent a fair few blogging tips and advice sites. I’m sure I absorbed some useful information. Yet, pretty soon I figured out that at best they were stating the obvious (“Be nice to your readers! Make your site look pretty!”) and at worst were carny schemers looking to part gullible or trusting people with their money (“Subscribe to my newsletter to become a blogging star! Buy my pdf report to find out how you too can become a Full-Time Blogger!”). Beyond all that, these people were sermonising on how to be a better blogger, yet were often terrible, wooden, formulaic writers. I need never see a How Blogging Is Like *insert cultural influence here* article ever again. Read the rest of this entry »

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