{"id":1295,"date":"2010-02-23T15:54:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T22:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macblaze.ca\/?p=1295"},"modified":"2010-02-23T15:54:58","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T22:54:58","slug":"margaret-atwood-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/?p=1295","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Atwood says…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Margaret Atwood<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.<\/p>\n

2. If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.<\/p>\n

3. Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.<\/p>\n

4. If you’re using a computer, always safeguard new text with a memory stick.<\/p>\n

5. Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.<\/p>\n

6. Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B.<\/p>\n

7. You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.<\/p>\n

8. You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.<\/p>\n

9. Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And\/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.<\/p>\n

10. Prayer might work. Or reading something else. Or a constant visual\u00adisation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.<\/p>\n

More writers give you helpful rules<\/a>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margaret Atwood 1. Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils. 2. If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}