Notes on Writing

Garrison Keillor, creator of  of Lake Wobegon "where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." " (The Universe of Discourse, the blog where I also found this: of which later) writes on writing:

". . . If you work 9 to 5, that means setting the alarm for 5 a.m. so you can shower and dress and have some coffee and take a nice brisk walk for 20 minutes and then settle yourself down in a quiet place and have two luxurious hours of stillness in which to put something on the computer. Then make a hard copy and stick it in your back pocket to mark up during any odd free moments during the day. If you’re out of the habit of writing, you may need to do some exercises — give yourself some assignments — write about your parents, describe your best friends, write the story of your worst low point in life, etc. Just to get your brain working. In the evening, I’m afraid, your brain will be tired of words, so the morning is your best bet, and you’ll have to give up some of your evening pleasures so you can get enough sleep. But it’s worth trying this for a year or so to see what comes from it. And I wish you well."

Link through  Atanu Dey on India's Development


Sage advice.


And what did I discover at The Universe of Discourse?

"Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about how he was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. This sounds awful, and it is awful. But six months was the expected lifetime for patients with his type of cancer—the average remaining lifetime, in other words—and in fact, nearly everyone with that sort of cancer lived less than six months, usually much less. The average was only skewed up as high as six months because of a few people who took years to die. Gould realized this, and then set about trying to find out how the few long-lived outliers survived and what he could do to turn himself into one of the long-lived freaks. And he succeeded, and lived for twenty years, dying eventually at age 60."