Advice to Writers

One of my favourite people that I follow on Twitter is Jon Winokur who tweets under the name Advice To Writers. The tweets include quotes from writers, links to articles and grammar tips. Anything that doesn’t fit within 140 characters is included on his site.

The posts range from practical advice such as this:

The curse of all successful writers is the dream of all Americans: owning a house. Houses have ruined a lot of literary artists, more so than drugs or drink. Jack London built himself a palace and then committed suicide. Mark Twain almost went bust maintaining his Connecticut digs. …If I had one piece of advice to give to aspirant writers it would be: Don’t—don’t, don’t, don’t—under any circumstances buy a house you could not afford if you were a plumber’s assistant. Or, as a veteran Hollywood agent told me not long ago: Put your money in the bank; if you buy anything, pay cash, and if you can’t pay cash, don’t buy it. – PHILIP CAPUTO

To opinions such as this (especially relevant for me now):

If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone. – ERICA JONG

To bon mots such as this:

There are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money; the second, that you have something to say that you think the world should know; the third is that you can’t think of what to do with the long winter evenings. – QUENTIN CRISP

One of his most recent links was to a post on dating a writer by Rebecca Rosenblum. I might make it mandatory reading for my prospective dates in the future!