Mad tips

I found this tip list on a site that also has some excellent advice on how to write scripts for Mad Men, which has some good general advice mixed in.

The only objection that I have with the tip list is with No. 5, which I would amend to read:

...unless it works, in which case, go with the stereotypes.

Review: Clarkson on Cars

Clarkson on Cars by Jeremy Clarkson (1996)

A collection of Clarkson's columns from the mid-1980s to mid-'90s, Clarkson on Cars airs Mr Clarkson's views on Volkswagen Beetles (Nazi cars), vegetarians (expect everyone to conform to their whims), Beards (just weird), the Jaguar XJS (Glorious) and the usefulness of car performance stats (0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds is less informative than calling it "terrifying").  Along the way he talks about his abortive attempt to use a bicycle in London, why he feels so sorry for Japanese car makers when their presentations go wrong, and the utter pointlessness of 'roo bars in a car without kangaroos.

Essay collections can often be hard going and this one is no exception.  More of a book to be dipped into rather than read cover to cover in one go, Clarkson on Cars  is filled with Clarkson's outspoken, humourous style, but it also exhibits his encyclopaedic knowledge of cars, which is impressive.  Unfortunately, it also means that reading the book often calls for having an ipad at hand to look up whatever obscure marque he's talking about.

And it has a kangaroo on the cover.

You've got Trollope in my Austen

Joanna Trollope is set to bastardise rewrite Jane Austen's books start a "'conversation' between Austen and today's novelists"

Fortunately for Miss Trollope, Miss Austen has been safely dead for some time, so there is little chance of her receiving a sound beating about the head and shoulders by the offended author.

The writing curve

Sometimes the writing process seems like the stages of grief.

A Conversation with Ray Bradubury

A sense of perspective

John Le Carre interview

Procrastination

Kurt Vonnegut lectures

Brief and to the point

A succinct review of the James Bond pastiche Colonel Sun
by Kingsley Amis after it came out in 1968

Status report

If you want your characters to stand out from the page, don't forget to work on their status.  Making body language come off the page is tricky, but it pays dividends.

Ken Follett teaches

Fancy a master's class in novel writing?  Ken Follett has one on his website and since you're reading this, there's no reason why you shouldn't pop over for a shufti.

Modern proofreading

It's a new millennium, so we need new proofreading symbols to meet the challenge.

10 Screenwriting No-Nos

Never do this.

Yesterday, we looked at Raiders of the Lost Ark as a perfect model of how to write a screenplay.  Now let's look at the polar opposite:  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as the perfect model of how not to write a screenplay.