“Ten rules for writing”: Colm Tóibín
Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran recently: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Colm Tóibín:
1 Finish everything you start.
2 Get on with it.
3 Stay in your mental pyjamas all day.
4 Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
5 No alcohol, sex or drugs while you are working.
6 Work in the morning, a short break for lunch, work in the afternoon and then watch the six o’clock news and then go back to work until bed-time. Before bed, listen to Schubert, preferably some songs.
7 If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.
8 On Saturdays, you can watch an old Bergman film, preferably Persona or Autumn Sonata.
9 No going to London.
10 No going anywhere else either.
Anything on the list here today that catches your eye, gives you inspiration, or causes you to rethink your approach to writing?
Tomorrow I’ll feature a different writer from The Guardian series and their rules on writing.