Writers have to be brutal with their characters, no matter how much they may love them. But writers must also be equally harsh with themselves and their words, and for precisely the same reasons.

Case in point: Murder Your Darlings is a brief and brilliant writing how-to by James Patrick Kelly, who advocates utter ruthlessness in criticizing one’s own manuscripts, warning of the dangers of becoming so deeply enamoured of one’s own plotting and prose that one may become blinded* to its faults and foibles. These wisdoms should be applied to all sorts of fiction, whether genre like fantasy or science fiction, or other,…

One of my haunts on the ‘net is DeepGenre, and while I rarely comment or participate in a discussion [because I know that -- where I am as a writer at this time -- I'm pretty much in over my head with these folks], I also rarely ever come away without some shining pearl of wisdom.

Two recent posts are by David Louis Edelman, author of Infoquake, a two-part step-by-step guide on the [not-so] gentle art of crafting and honing a novel. Part One is here, and Part Two is here. Mr.Edelman’s tone is humourous and light-hearted, so we’re reminded that — while we should approach storytelling with respect for the art and craft — we shouldn’t take ourselves [or our golden words] too seriously.

Read and enjoy, and then go write something, something good.

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*akin to Stendhal’s observation of the effect he named ‘crystallisation‘.