Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

  Very few books I've read can hold so much power in so few words. The ending of this book, in the final paragraphs, performs a tying up of the whole novel that changes the light cast on all the previous pages. The Affirmation had a similar effect in its final page, but this one …

The first day

A brand new year! Feels just like the last one, doesn't it? That's because the difference is completely arbitrary! So keep doing what you're doing, keep working toward your dream, and don't give up because you didn't make some fictitious deadline. Write on!

The last day

This year I finished a novel, wrote and mostly edited a novella, wrote a number of short stories that I forgot to keep track of, made a blog post every day this year, read/listened to 34 novels, and helped start an online magazine. It's been a productive year for writing! Best novel I read this year: …

Thought is a luxury we should not take for granted.

Sometimes we all feel like we have no time to relax and think. But imagine for a moment a field worker or a miner or any other manual laborer, living just a couple centuries ago. Such a person probably didn't know how to read, or not how to read for enjoyment. They worked day all …

What are your resolutions?

To write more? I bet one of them is to write more. All us writers tend to make that resolution every year. But the trick to keeping those resolutions is to make your goal something measurable, and achievable. For example, no nebulous 'write more' goals. Pick something solid like 'write a story each month' or …