• Via anghara, tightropegirl on writing what you love instead of what you think you should write.
• Via fairmer, I think , this essay by Zadie Smith in the Guardian on what makes a good writer: Writers know that between the platonic ideal of the novel and the actual novel there is always the pesky self – vain, deluded, myopic, cowardly, compromised. That's why writing is the craft that defies craftsmanship: craftsmanship alone will not make a novel great. and Bad writing does nothing, changes nothing, educates no emotions, rewires no inner circuitry – we close its covers with the same metaphysical confidence in the universality of our own interface as we did when we opened it. But great writing – great writing forces you to submit to its vision. You spend the morning reading Chekhov and in the afternoon, walking through your neighbourhood, the world has turned Chekhovian; the waitress in the cafe offers a non- sequitur, a dog dances in the street. It rings true and is not encouraging: it is probably easier to learn craftmanship than to learn to express a soul.
• Via someone, Justine Musk on Why writers should read. Musk says she's puzzled at people who say they don't have time to read because they need that time to write. I don't find that statement puzzling at all; just do the math. I don't read nearly as much as I used to (though that's not only because I spend the time writing, and I'm starting to read more again). Having spent 23 years doing a ton of reading and no writing, I figure I can get away with very little reading for a few years. There are a ton of things I'd like to do in my life, but I don't have to do them all at once.
Though when I say I don't read much, I mean fiction, or nonfiction books. I don't count the daily paper or news on the web. Or nonfiction related to my job, like articles about technical writing or journalism. Or books I don't finish (novels that don't hold my interest, nonfiction books of which I only read a chapter or two). Or magazines. Or the short stories I read on the web….
• Mur Lafferty's interview with Nancy Kress is a good one (podcast)