Interesting Readings on Writing from Writers we adore..

1. http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2012/05/14/the-narrative-gift-as-a-moral-conundrum/

I believe a good story, plotted or plotless, rightly told, is satisfying as such and in itself. But here, with “rightly told,” is my conundrum or mystery. Inept writing lames or cripples good narrative only if it’s truly inept. An irresistibly readable story can be told in the most conventional, banal prose, if the writer has the gift. - Ursula Le Guinne

2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/05/03/avengers-director-joss-whedon-on-trying-to-be-more-like-buffy/5/

Forbes Interview with Joss Whedon regarding his work. (Note, if your movie becomes the biggest blockbuster of all time, regardless of its content, you get an interview with Forbes). Below are out-takes that I found rather interesting and different from what he usually says. Yes, (if you follow the link) he still thinks he's Buffy, I still think he's Angel and Spike, with a bit of Warren Miers and Xander thrown in, but what do I know? ;-)

Interviewer: Do you ever delve into the voluminous fan fiction around “Buffy”?

Joss Whedon: I have delved into it. There’s a bunch. There isn’t a better barometer of the kind of success that I crave, which is that people haven’t only enjoyed the work; they’ve internalized it. I don’t, obviously, spend all my days reading it because that would make me creepy, but it’s a huge, huge thing for me that people have taken it into their lives.

There you have it, folks, proof that Whedon has possibly read your fanfic. I'm not sure how I would feel about that. I know he hasn't read mine - because it is hidden. But he may have read my meta ...which would be weird. I really don't want to know.

Artistic freedom can be dangerous. A lot of times it can lead to very self-indulgent work, but it’s also, if you are aware of your audience and what you’re trying to do, it’s very necessary.

Regarding Twitter...which is a comment I agree with, and is the reason I'm not on Twitter, but luckily I'm not Whedon, so I don't have to open an account because someone else might steal my name and pretend to be me on it. (Someone did this to Cormac McCarthy by the way, so Whedon is not alone.)

Interviewer: You’re not on Twitter, although you do have an account in your name.

Whedon: I created it because someone was using my name.

Interviewer: So why aren’t you using it?

Whedon: I think I would find it a little paralyzing. If you tell me I only have 140 characters, that’s like writing a haiku. Shit is hard. Try to write a children’s book and you realize, oh, this is much harder than writing a novel because every word matters. I don’t want to be on Twitter and just go, “That burrito made me gassy.”

I’m not interested in sharing my life with people. And I would feel an obligation, if I were to tweet, to tweet something worth tweeting. And believe me when I say if I could lose four days of work — of page after page of good, solid work of my job of being a writer — to trying to figure out a tweet. Now, eventually, I might throw caution to the wind and dive in and see what happens, but right now I think that would be poor time management for me.

And no, he never mentions the Buffy comics, which leads me to believe he's given up on them like I have? Okay, not exactly like I have.