Various things I’ve found interesting and illuminating!
totally random
a list of untranslateable words
a list of geographical terms - handy if you are wanting to describe a landscape, for example
10 useful websites - really useful!
NK Jemison on skin colour names
Random street view - Map Crunch
on writing
The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop by Stephen Koch
Writing With Power by Peter Elbow
The Thorn Necklace - Healing Through Writing and the Creative Process, by Francesca Lia Block
self-publishing
Stop Worrying; Start Selling: The Introvert Author’s Guide to Marketing by Sarah Painter
Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran
Successful Self-Publishing by Joanna Penn
courses
Starting from Zero - free course from David Gaughran on self publishing and marketing
Couch to 80k - Tim Clare’s podcast on getting match fit with your writing, and how to get your writing mojo going again.
quotes I like
characters you love making choices you hate — Chuck Wendig, The Kick-Ass Writer
Take the reader on a wild-but-meaningful ride — George Saunders, in his Substack newsletter
Never say anything, never show too much love — Proust’s law of desire, via Annie Ernaux
We rarely read poems any more. Unlike popular crime novels, they do not contain a final truth. Poems play with fuzzy edges. — Han Byung-Chul, Pornography and Ambuguity
When you start putting words on the page, an associative process takes over. And, all of a sudden, there are surprises. All of a sudden you say to yourself, ‘My God, how did this come into your head? Why is this on the page?’ I just simply go where it takes me. — Charles Simic
An unfinished book, left unattended, turns feral. — Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being
