Tag Archives: language

About the science of language, linguistics, etc.

Writing: A chronology

It’s been almost a year to the day I stopped posting stuff I write to this blog. And to add to it, numerous complaints that the blue turf had grown too technical to enjoy. Somebody commented that perhaps I’d got a new girlfriend along the way: Miss Ruby. Sigh.

And so I’ve decided to revive a hobby put to rest for a time. Before I post some new stuff (my muse has not been idling away, dear sirs) I’ll let you re-read my older work. Some I’m proud of, most I’m not, but should you take the plunge, you might find youself in my thrall. =)

Ordered reverse chronologically:

Or, wait until Writeroom and I have a chance to bring something new to you.

Dan Simmons on Writing

Dan Simmons on Writing Well:

We all know there are youthful prodigies in mathematics. Indeed, by the age of 30, most true mathematicians are over the hill. If they haven’t made their bones by then, they almost certainly never will.

There are near-infant prodigies in music. (At the age of two, so the story goes, little Mozart would toddle downstairs in the middle of the night and play an unresolved chord on the harpsichord, knowing that his father would have to get out of bed and come downstairs to resolve it.)

There are artistic prodigies such as Picasso. It’s reported that Andrew Wyeth was so proficient in drawing with charcoal when he was about seven that his instructor, his father N.C., banned him from drawing with it for at least a year so he wouldn’t fall behind in learning his skills with other media.

There are no novelist prodigies. None. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch.

This is an absolute must read for all writers.