Writing about writing is like dancing about Antonio Banderas

(Yeah, it's true. Mostly I blog because I like writing subject lines.)

Scott at SlushPile.net thinks books about writing are shit. No, really: he really thinks they're shit.

There are 557 books listed in the Reference: Writing: Fiction section of Amazon. There are 3,270 books in the Reference: Publishing & Books: General section. But the sad truth is that the vast majority of writing and publishing books are shit.

Scott lays out the three categories of books about writing as he sees them. (Hint: he thinks they're all shit.) I'll admit I don't have a lot of experience with these sorts of books, but that won't stop me from calling them all shit, too (because, as my inner-bullshit detector tells me, what else can a writing book tell you but that to write, you need to write, and maybe, if you're feeling plucky, read a little?).

Well, most of them, anyway. Based on a recommendation Gwenda Bond dropped somewhere at some point in time, I recently read The Modern Library Writer's Workshop (aka "The Green Bible") by Stephen Koch. I found it quite readable. In a good way. (His tips about revision were illuminating, and practical.) I'll be re-reading it in time. Also, Scott mentions 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might, which I read last year. (One good "writing about writing" book a year seems about the right pace.)

Scott ends his post with a call for books of practical advice for practical writers. Maybe you know of some books like that; you should go suggest them. Me, I'm going to mention that Koch's book has a "further reading" list at the end that I'll be reading through over time. But for me, I'm more an occasional sucker for a good piece of Writer Porn--those books that give the warm-fuzzy reminder that yes, it's okay to act like a writer, and to think writing is super nifty, because acting like a writer is fun, and writing really is super nifty.

And now I'm going to shut up and go back to talking about Stephen Dixon because you don't need to hear an unpublished putzfuck babbling about the art and the craft of writing. Man, Stephen Dixon is totally awesome! Did I mention I finished Tisch? I'm reading Gould, now. I meant to read something else by someone else, but, I couldn't. I'm glued. Maybe I've placed orders for a bunch more of his books, because I'm sort of suddenly re-obsessed. Remember when I said this was going to be the year I read lots of super long novels like Bleak House and Don Quixote? What I meant to say was this was going to be the year I made mad love to the literature of Stephen Dixon and Kazuo Ishiguro. Mad love, people. Mad, mad love.

My god I must be stopped.