An anonymous, grumpy literary agent has started a Tumblr of “query fails.” Hilarity ensues. Some gems:

This is neither a Christian, racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic, or pornographic essay even if many pictures of nude people are included in the essay.

Greetings agent. I have written the most important book on earth.

I’M TYPING MY QUERY IN ALL CAPS SO YOU WILL BE SURE TO NOTICE IT!

An interesting discussion over at The Rumpus on writing to get paid.

The weirdest story ideas come from your own obsessions, and more great notes on craft from Kelly Link.

Children guess how much authors were paid for their work, with hilarious (and also, sadly accurate) results.

A fan’s awkward/adorable experience meeting her literary hero.

Aaaaand just for kicks, the animated short “The Writer Who Couldn’t Read”: Read more »

There’s a great post from Mark Gluth over at HTMLGIANT right now about cannibalizing your own writing (warning: before you go read the original post, beware that the image on the post is rather gross):

The pest control guy told me about rats that cannibalize dead rats. He’s seen cats that eat cats. Then I read about this cannibal star that’s eating a planet. It got me thinking about a ton of stuff, and as per usual I started to think about writing, about how I write, about how much the end results of my writing process are built upon cannibalization of the lesser results of previous processes. About thoughts that kill previous thoughts to give rise to new thoughts.

I think Gluth brings up an interesting element of the writing process that rings very true for me. My separate writing projects aren’t so separate after all: I mix-and-match parts of different ideas until I see what fits.

But I think using the word “cannibalize” wrongly demonizes the quite useful and common act of revising, recycling, and re-using.  Of taking the train of thought from a recently-killed project idea to jump-start the creative energy for a new writing project idea.

One of the most helpful pieces of advice I’ve gotten from a writing teacher is to create a text document prominently placed on my computer desktop called “Saves.” Every time I cut something out of a work — an idea, a phrase, a character, an entire written-out paragraph, something that is beautifully-crafted but no longer fits in my work — I cut and paste it into “Saves.”

The “Saves” document is now chock full of great snippets that I hope will find their way back into a completed writing project.  You have to revisit it everyone once in a while to see what you have.

Better yet, once you’ve collected these snippets for years, publish the whole document as is, a pastiche of pretty little things with no home (at least that’s what my professor, Leslie Sharpe, humorously suggested).

If you’re tired of all those ‘top books of the decade/2009′ articles: here are the top books of 1709.

Applying quantitative analysis to classic literature.

Some reactions to Electric Literature’s Twitter serialization of Rick Moody’s “Some Contemporary Characters,” as compiled by HTMLGIANT.

Speaking of serialized novels, author Nicholas Rombes is doing one of his own, via snail mail.

The Guardian wants you to know that dragons, not vampires, are the best monsters of all time.

Are e-readers the eight-tracks of publishing?

Aaand something to help get you through the rest of the week: a flarf orchestra. (via HTMLGIANT) Read more »

I have a special fondness in my heart for bad poetry. Partly because I’m a terrible poet myself so I can’t help but identify with fellow terrible poets. And also partly because, as I’ve discussed before, I think there’s a lot to be gained by disregarding the rules of “good” writing–how else are you supposed to further your craft if you’re not willing to take risks?

So in the spirit of taking risks, and of totally missing the mark, there’s Very Bad Poetry, an online journal featuring such gems as these: Read more »

This week: Banned Books Week, R.L. Stine, literary recommendations, and some witchcraft, after the jump. Read more »

This week: the Dan Brown clusterfuck, Amish smut, and some fantastic author lists from HTMLGIANT, along with your pick-me-up, after the jump.

Read more »