Quotation(s) of the Week: Roddy Doyle

I’ve always advised my writing friends and students to title their works-in-progress. So I was happy to see this advice for fiction-writing:

4. Do give the work a name as quickly as possible. Own it, and see it. Dickens knew Bleak House was going to be called Bleak House before he started writing it. The rest must have been easy.

8. Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments.

Source: Roddy Doyle, quoted in Ten Rules for Writing Fiction (which you’ve probably seen mentioned elsewhere online since posting last month).

Frankly, I also find this advice extremely reassuring because I have just retitled my story collection.

Friday Find: Twitter Chats for Writers

Remember when I told you that I was finally lured into opening a Twitter account because I wanted to participate in the Jewish Book Council’s Twitter book club? It turns out that there are SO MANY similar Twitter chats occurring on a regular basis. It’s a veritable virtual smorgasbord!

Thanks to There Are No Rules, I’ve recently discovered “Inkygirl”‘s excellent list of “Twitter Chats for Writers,” and someday–perhaps even this weekend–I’ll actually be able to visit a handful of them! Check them out, and please tell us if any of your favorites are listed there (or if there are others we should know about).

Have a wonderful weekend. See you back here on Monday!

Friday Find: "How to Create a Simple Writer Blog"

For those of you who have not yet created a blog, today’s your lucky day! Peta Jinnath Andersen provides some truly excellent tips on getting one started. I wish I’d seen a post like this before I started mine!

Which raises a question I’ve considered asking here before: Have any of you transferred a blog from Blogger to WordPress, and if so, what advice do you have?

Thanks, and enjoy the weekend. See you back here on Monday. (Can’t believe it will be March!)

Friday Finds: Top Writing Blogs

Whether you’ll be snowed in this weekend or not, you may appreciate the opportunity to peruse some compilations of top writing blogs. I’ve recently learned that Practicing Writing appears on two such lists, Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs and Top 100 Blogs to Improve Your Writing in 2010. We’re in some pretty impressive company, so I’m grateful and glad. Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday!