Apparently, even Jane Austen would have a hard time getting a novel published today:
David Lassman sent off to 18 publishers assorted chapters from Austen novels in which he changed just the titles and the names of the characters.
Seventeen publishers rejected or ignored his bid for literary glory. Only one spotted the ruse and told him [...]
Some of you e-mailed about yesterday’s article, wanting Franklin’s exact description, so here it is:
About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the [...]
Today I started reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and came across the method he used to learn how to write better, which I thought was ingenious.
Take a short piece of writing you find to be particularly eloquent, moving, and/or persuasive.
On a blank sheet of paper, take notes about each sentence or paragraph, expressing the [...]
If you haven’t seen this linked from other sites yet, Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) posted the following article to his blog: The Day You Became A Better Writer. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to do so.
The main point of the article is simplifying your writing. I know this is [...]
