Category: Ephemera

Originally posted on Aerogramme Writers' Studio:
Never open a book with the weather. Avoid prologues. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.” Keep your exclamation points under control! Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.” Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.…

Originally posted on Aerogramme Writers' Studio:
In 2010, inspired to Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing, The Guardian asked some of the world’s most respected writers to share their best tips. Here’s how Hilary Mantel, the first British author to win the Man Booker Prize twice, responded to the task. Are you serious about this? Then…

Marina Warner spent years unable to set foot in a Catholic church. “I went to a convent school,” she explains, “but renounced it as a young woman. For a long time it remained too painful. I felt flattened if I tried to go inside a church, sinful, excluded and so wretched, but now all that … Continue reading For further reading