Writing advice for the long haul

The writing advice in The Writer’s pages tends to be of the earnest variety. We aim for both practical tips and inspiration to keep you going. But sometimes what you need to keep your spirits up is a good chuckle or some tongue-in-cheek suggestions. Enter Richard Hine’s blog post “How to write a novel in 30 years or less.” Hine recently made publishing news by inviting advertising professionals to submit book trailers for his novel Russell Wiley Is Out to Lunch as part of a contest sponsored by Amazon.com and Zooppa.com. 

Writers who tend to procrastinate will appreciate his unhurried take on novel writing, including my favorite pearl of wisdom: “Investigate new technologies. Is it possible yet to transmit your thoughts to a computer wirelessly and have them spell-and-grammar-checked and put directly into an ebook format? If not, check again at three-month intervals. You never know when a breakthrough will occur.”

And this one: “Fight that rising panic. Read a book about how to write a book. And a few writer’s magazines too.” May we suggest The Writer?

—Sarah C. Lange, associate editor

P.S. If you haven't already seen the winning book trailer, here it is:

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