More stuff

[sheldrake]

I recently subscribed to a bunch of writing-type magazines, in a moment of unbridled madness. I think the general idea was that if I spent enough time reading about writing, I could successfully avoid having to actually do any. Anyway, interesting. Some stuff is good, some is crap, which is a bit like life in general, really. Here is some stuff that occurred to me, helpfully bullet-pointed:

• Avoid anything with a picture of a fountain pen on it.
• Some guy says: 'Common pitfalls [of writing short stories include] - Not enough characters. Two characters are not enough: you need three so they can have a relationship.' WTF? I say again, WTF?? Other common pitfalls include having 'too many characters'. Genius. Mind you, this guy thinks that 'a story is about the problems people face and how they overcome them'. Ah. Right.
• Incidentally, the above article ends with the intriguing non-sentence, 'In the end, the problem is'
• I love this classified ad: 'Looking for new topics and new characters? SciTalk can help, with its free easy-to-use database and website of enthusiastic scientists who would really enjoy talking to you. Browse the topics now and arrange to meet.' What is this, some kind of bizzare writer/scientist dating organisation? That's almost as good as Llama Speed-Dating (which is a real thing btw, you get to meet the man/woman of your dreams while walking a llama up a hill.)

It occurs to me that not much of that was stuff that occurred to me, it was just stuff. Anyway, putting the magazines down for a sec, Neil Gaiman has posted pics of the novel he is currently writing, all in its pretty little notebook, and I thought it was rather a fun thing to see. :)

Also: they threw another rock through the bus window! Before I got on this time. The driver had to stop to kick the bits of window out into the road.

Right, that'll do for now.