Helpful posts for writers

A few blog finds:

 Jim Harrington's Six Questions For... blog runs brief interviews with editors at literary journals and small presses  (Coachella Review, Crab Creek Review, Our Stories, Dzanc Books, Prime Number -- mostly newer, less-known lit mags, it looks like).

Check out this recent post from novelist and teacher Alexander Chee, on the whys and hows of author blogging -- maybe it's all been said before, but he says it all so beautifully.  I like to read his blog now and then for the his thoughts on writing, politics, literature, teaching.  He did a great three-part series a while back when/whether to get your MFA.

And a response to Jennifer Weiner's noisy irritation with Jonathan Franzen and his literary darling status.  (Franzenfreude, she calls it on Twitter.  Pretty funny.)

Hilary Mantel: Writer as shape-shifter

I'm kind of obsessed with Hilary Mantel right now.  Wolf Hall was such a feat --  historical fiction about Thomas Cromwell, his rise from abused blacksmith's son to Henry VIII's closest adviser.  It's in close third person, and even though the book is hefty and runs hundreds of pages, it feels economical and quick.   

This interview ran in The Telegraph (UK) about six months ago.  Here's a quote from it.  She is talking about the intersection of her difficult childhood and her long writing life. 

 'As a writer you owe it to yourself not to get stuck in a rut of looking at the world in a certain way. You have no business saying, “My character is this and my character is that. This is my habit, this is what I am like.” That is no good for a writer. You have got to be absolutely fluid. You have to become everything your material demands of you. You have to be mutable. You have to be constantly ready to change shape.’   

Writing tips, historical fiction

Janet Fitch (White Oleander) posted these ten writing rules on her blog last month, and then the LA Times reprinted them, and after that the piece went around to other writing blogs.  These are helpful revision tips, even if you've heard them all before.  Fitch posts writing exercises and and craft tips on her blog.  She also teaches at USC


The Guardian (UK) has a great books blog.   A recent entry, The Lying Art of Historical Fiction, caught my eye.   I've been thinking about Hilary Mantel's book Wolf Hall since finishing it, all those wonderful details of Thomas Cromwell's life that she had to have made up.