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Saturday, September 3, 2011

One for the Notebook (One Against)

I subscribe on Twitter to AdviceToWriters, which generally yields several pieces of "advice" per day. Today they provided this quotation from Will Self (really, there's a person named Will Self? yes, just Googled him, he's a British novelist):

"Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever."


Which immediately reminded me of the following quote from Kay Ryan:

"I do not carry a notebook in my pocket. That would be the ruination of me because it would make my two worlds connect. I can’t say it strongly enough."


There is no right way to be a writer. There is only the way that works for you for now, which may not be the way that works for you later (see post on Troy Jollimore).

This is, like all the best things, both a blessing and a curse. As is, apparently, a notebook.

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