This guy strongly suggests you read this post.
Table of Contents is a series that collects stories from around the Internet that will inspire you to keep writing and reading. To share writing news with us, leave a message in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
By Daniel Ford
Writing Hall
Teenagers at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall are being encouraged to express themselves through creative writing by InsideOut Writers, a volunteer group that includes Hollywood executive producer Scott Budnick. "I'll be stressed out — I'll write about it," one of the inmates told The Los Angeles Times. "It's a good outlet. I don't have to fight somebody and dig a deeper hole." Powerful read that will further convince you of the lasting importance of words.
Turn That Soul Around
Michelle Huneven’s keynote address at Writing Workshops LA: The Conference, which took place on June 28, 2014 at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, is chock-full of wonderful writing advice. Here are a few of my favorites:
“To write, you have to turn your soul around. And then you have to turn it around again, and again, because there’s always slippage. Even after dozens of years of writing, there is slippage.”
“We have to accept the fact that there will be interruptions, and develop our abilities to get back into writing a little more swiftly each time.”
“Writers have to be able to delay gratification. To work without immediate pleasures. To delay gratification in general is the great sign of maturity. In writers it is absolutely essential.”
Camp Out
This is kind of a weird story in The New York Times about Jeff Bezos hosting an annual literary weekend in Sante Fe, N.M. Bezos allegedly invites a dozen or so writers to the desert and showers them with high-end gifts and food. This year’s event gave attendees some agita because of Amazon’s current battle with the publishing company Hachette. So many great, pretentious, writer quotes in this one. You can hear the whining and desire to be feted without any consequences.
Female Geniuses
The website Bustle points out that “there aren’t any women writers on the 2014 MacArthur list aside from graphic memoirist/cartoonist Alison Bechdel.” Tori Telfer gives a worthy list of female writers that should have been awarded a grant, which includes Marilynne Robinson, Louise Erdrich, Meg Wolitzer, and others.
Doesn’t Answer the Question: Where is the Booth?!
Remember when Sean Tuohy wrote about the mysterious John Swartzwelder, a writer for “The Simpsons” who may or may not actually exist? Well, apparently, an old pilot he wrote called “Pistol Pete” has surfaced on YouTube. It’s a western. That sound you hear is Sean’s head exploding with happiness.
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