Some good advice for writers

The rabbit blog doesn't seem to be updated very often, and the questions do have a tendency (noted in the text) to go on and on, and yet scrolling down to the answer to the Dec. 1, 2003, question, one finds some really good advice for writers:

1. Use your critics for good, not evil.

He has specific and amusing suggestions for what to do with them: sending some to the grocery story; forcing others to watch Mel Gibson movies for a week; herding some into a bar to get drunk. One new idea here is that one's critics are legion; another is that the writer should round up a few of them and include their in the writing, to give it piquancy and spice.

2. Become sociopathically overconfident.

No explanation needed. He's not talking about how to deal with friends (at least I hope not), but the necessity of being out there in the text.

3. Be more specific.

This is really good. He says, "you won't ever learn to write about sweeping, epic, fantastic feelings if you don't practice with mundane, pathetic, dissatisfied feelings first."