Chip Scanlan’s tips on writing:
1. Lower your standards
2. Get something done
3. Swallow the bile on your first draft
4. Print out early
5. Read aloud
6. Apply critical standards
Category: Wanderings
The key to modern life
It was David Foster Wallace’s birthday yesterday. He nailed it when he said:
“To be, in a word, unborable…. It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.” – The Pale King (2011)
Thumb rule for using hyperlinks
In an excellent article Robert Cottrell makes a smart point about online writing:
It helps, too, that when you’re writing online, there’s no need to introduce and source every person, place and fact you mention, and no need to fill in the backstory for those new to the subject. You can link out to the source document or the related story – or just assume your reader knows how to use Google and Wikipedia.
It is very annoying to read articles that have too many hyperlinks. I think a thumb rule for hyperlinks should be: use no more than 1 hyperlink per 200 words.
PS: In case you can’t read the linked FT article, try this.
Akshat Rathi 