Who am I to say this is shit?

"An author on Facebook the other day noted, quite correctly, that writing is a craft and as a craft it can be evaluated fairly easily. This isn’t about whether a story is to your liking, but rather, does the author know the basic rules of writing a story? Rules can be broken, of course, but they must be broken with some skill — breaking the rules out of ignorance creates, you know, a fucking mess. A writer not knowing the difference between a possessive and a plural is not some avant-garde hipster trick. It’s a basic lack of craft awareness. At that point you’re not a marksman doing tricks; you’re a toddler with a handgun." More brilliance from Chuck Wendig

This actually ties into a really good piece I read the other day on the death of expertise. There is this bizarre notion that everyone's opinions are equally valid and it is just mean to provide critique. Here's a little tip - an educated opinion is more valid than a uneducated opinion, and educated critique is actually a really important tool to raise the quality of a work, be it dance, cooking or writing. I think a lot of writers could benefit from more critique and harder editing, and a bit less having sunshine blown up their arses.

www Wednesday

Meme from should be reading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading: Chuck Wendig's Blackbirds, but it isn't really grabbing me.

Just finished: Sharon Shinn's Archangel. It was a bookclub pick, otherwise I can't imagine ever choosing it. It's the first in a series which I will not pursue, although I didn't actually hate it.

Next in line: N.K Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Another bookclub pick.

Life is too short...

...to read bad books. If it has no obviously redeeming features (and morbid fascination for bad writing can be a redeeming feature) by 25% in, I will abandon it.

Known unknowns

You probably shouldn't have someone's ambition be to join a super-secret organisation that they actually haven't heard of.

Comparative anatomy

The heart is usually on the left hand side of the human body. Which means that if you have your arms around someone who is facing you, it is fairly unlikely that you will feel your hearts beating against each other.

Pretty Peacocks

I love Chuck Wendig's blog so much that one day I will actually get around to buying his books. He has so many good things to say about the craft and process of writing (and other stuff) expressed with, um, vigour. I've occasionally had comments on my food blog about the fact that I shouldn't swear, so fuck knows what his commenters say to him.

Anyway, in a brilliant post about editing, he made a very important point - "I keep a list of crutch words and precious darlings: anything I tend to rely upon as a lazy construction or word choice or character traits, or, or, or."

I think this should be more widely used. Because at some point the fact that a writer has used the word "delicate" or "delicately" three times on one page, exceeded only by the number of times she has used the word "gasped", is going to hit the reader with a brick and ruin their buzz. Thesaurus. Get one.

Preternatural senses

You should probably know how far your average person can see on a dark night or have a good reason for extending it.