“How I write” – notes on Marjorie Perloff’s talk

Marjorie Perloff‘s talk at the Stanford’s series “How I write,” sharing some really useful ideas. The talk can be downloaded from Stanford on iTunes U (you’ll need iTunes for that). Some of her ideas:

• Before the first draft, I’ll do anything to procrastinate.
• I take a lot of notes. I still copy a lot of things and I do it before I start writing.
• When i start writing, I am usually taken to a different place than what I planned.
• Writing is a habit. If you get out of habit, it’s hard to come back. You have to write all the time.
• Write (book) reviews, they are good practice.
• It’s much more difficult to write something short.
• Reviews (with a fixed number of words) are a great exercise.
• I have friends who have great ideas, but they procrastinate and never write them down.
• After a first draft things get easier.
• I like collages, non-sequitur. So i turned my weakness into my strength.
• You may write in order to learn.
• In all writing, you have to try and be brave.
• Be ready to take criticism.
• When you start, you rely a lot on other’s criticism, “as Foucault says…” I don’t do that much anymore. When you get older you start feeling sure about things.
• Things are so trendy that you may find the same 10 books all around. So you have to try getting away from that.