Lots of people who write like to write about writing.  Oftentimes what they say is contradictory, sometimes it’s too obvious to be truly useful, and yet occasionally you come across things which are genuinely interesting, entertaining, and elucidating.  Here are a few I’ve come across recently:

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, on “How to Write like a Cartoonist,” breaks down some of the basic elements of writing humor.

I have long loved Patricia C. Wrede’s novels, and her blog often has really interesting posts on elements of the writing process.  One of my favorites so far was on the difficulty of multi-person point of view and big complicated stories: “Complicated Webs”

The bloggers over at Writers’ Digest also can offer up interesting nuggets (assuming one doesn’t mind the plugs for the books available through the WD shop, etc.)  One post which  encapsulated one of the problems I had with Rick Riordan’s newest book, The Red Pyramid, was “The Biggest Bad Advice about Story Openings,” pointing out the weaknesses in the old advice ‘Start with action.’

Portrait of Chaucer by Thomas Hoccleve in the Regiment of Princes (1412). Click for link

And for sheer geeky writer glee, I must pass along the link which a fellow writer friend shared recently: Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog.  It’s written in Middle English (with a few modern adaptations) and is several levels of hilarious, if you’re anything like me (By which I mean ‘spent a whole semester reading almost nothing but medieval romances and the like.’  An understandably small percentage of you, I’m guessing).