B O N D P H O N E.
Words and pictures by Chris Lamb.

At the beginning of November and caught up in the slow fear that comes with starting a thing like NaNo with a story I'm not actually interested in, I bought a book on writing. It's a bad habit of mine, and about as detrimental (I'd imagine) as casual alcoholism or a mild Prozac habit. I find myself wanting to write and almost managing to do so, and start thinking that if I can just find the right book, the right lesson or bit of advice from the right successful author (they need only be moderately successful, I'm not asking for much), the drought will end and the worlds will come and everything will be fine. This has only happened twice, and only once with a book specifically written to take apart the act of writing and put the pieces on display. Most of the books sold about writing (or at least, most of the ones sold to me) are by people who, while they know what they're talking about, aren't saying anything I need to hear. There is a sense that one must be at a certain point in their career before any one will be interested in hearing what you have to say, and as such most writing advice is given by people past the time when they were excited or challenged to write. This leads to two things, typically: (a), lessons on writing that are at once both insulting to your intelligence and assuming writing comes as naturally to you as it does to the writer, and (b), The Modern Library Writer's Workshop being left out on the stoop for any one who wants it.

posted by chris  # 8:22 AM