Writers Helping Writers?

In 2004, Nicola Nikolov, an émigré to the U.S. in 1976 from communist Bulgaria, walked into William Dailey Rare Books in Los Angeles with a small archive of letters.


Briefly recounting a dark biography past and reduced, if freer, circumstances present, he told of his life as a published Bulgarian author and his difficulty establishing a writing career for himself in the United States. It was extremely important to him that his writing be accepted.


In August of 1978, he wrote, heart in hand, two-page long, well-written, typed letters to a small number of American novelists, with full, dire biographical details, limning his struggles to get read by the New York publishing establishment, and sincerely requesting that the novelists read and evaluate a few stories that he had enclosed. He saved their responses.

Stephen J. Gerz on the Bookpatrol blog has a fascinating story to tell about the compassion (or not) of  some successful American authors towards a struggling writer who needed their help.  Kurt Vonnegut (left) emerges as the most compassionate.

Thing is, though, I can really sympathise with the authors who said that they did not have time to read his manuscript too.  Kindness eats terribly into writing time.

Helpful Stuff for Writers

With the ultimate writing competition, the Nanowrimo, just round the corner, it's the right time to put up some links to the good stuff you can find online to help you write November's magnum opus.

(You don't know what I'm talking about? Go visit the website.)

First off, do you need an instant plot for your work of genre fiction (whether dragon-filled, neo-noir or dismally dystopian)? This hilarious generarator from Wondermark [found via]... well, it might not actually help you, but it is sure to raise a good chuckle.

Paperback Writer links to Ten Things for the NaNoWriMoer's including blog badges; a progress graph so you can chart your progress towards the 50,000 word target; a random name picker to help you name your hero or heroine; and advice to help you write the outline of your novel in 30 minutes.

Mashable also has a very useful toolkit for the writer with plenty more nice things to play with.

I'm finding Twitter enormously helpful as a blogger (since it enables me to scoop up interesting stories quickly, and I can tweet even when I haven't time to blog) and it is nice to discover about how it can also help writers. Debbie Ridpath Ohi lists ten ways, and has blogged A Writer's Guide to Twitter with lots of good advice.

There's nothing like advice from the master, and Kurt Vonnegut gives us some excellent advice about how to write with style, which he nicely distills into 7 principles (Finally someone who doesn't feel the need to have as many points as they have fingers!) :

1. Find a subject you care about

2. Do not ramble, though

3. Keep it simple

4. Have guts to cut

5. Sound like yourself

6. Say what you mean

7. Pity the readers

Vonnegut Dies at 84

Thanks Chet and another mysterious SMS-er for a newsflash that American master of Science Fiction, Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday of brain injuries following a fall at his house in Manhattan. He left a substantial body of work written over more than half a century which includes his novels Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle.

Here are links to obituaries in the Guardian and the Herald Tribune, while Nicholas Lezard pays tribute on the Guardian blog.

I think that you guys will probably know Vonnegut's work better than I do (I'm ashamed to say I haven't read him at all yet, but have long intended to.) It would be interesting to hear what you think of his writing.

(Pic from the Guardian.)