You might like to look here...
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-anthologies-about-writing/
But as the writer says - "It is quite possible to spend the rest of your life reading about how to write and never get around to actually writing..."
Is reading "how to do it" and constant planning another form of procrastination?
David
'Is reading "how to do it" and constant planning another form of procrastination?'
Researching "how to do it" may mean copious amounts of reading for some, but much less for others. However, it should not be a lengthy process of months and months of reading.
Planning saves time. It keeps the plot and storyline straight and clear, prevents the author from going off on tangents, and will therefore reduce the editing process considerably.
You can do what I did in the beginning, just start writing and plough ahead regardless. Then work backwards or forwards from that point. It was a mistake. I went off on tangents and ended by cutting large sections of text. The reason that happened was because I had not thoroughly planned. The result was that I was not in control of my novel. My novel controlled me. I ended with a collection of chapters that I was never going to use.
I never lacked inspiration, but my novel was badly orchestrated. I needed to learn how to plan and then structure my novel accordingly. So I did what research I thought was necessary. I hope that I have got it right.
It took Philip Pullman, (double Carnegie Medal winner) numerous years to complete his Dark Materials trilogy. He said that if he had planned more thoroughly he would have saved himself a considerable amount of time. I have read similar comments from best-selling authors.
But each to their own way of doing things.
Reading and writing on this blinking site, that's procrastination! Don't be showing me another site to go and read about writing!
Oh planning... don't get me going. I've got notebooks full of fully plotted novels that I can't bring myself to write. I daydream to myself (procrastinating again) that when I have the first novel accepted, at least I'll have no excuse for those second-novel doldrums. How ridiculous can you be - daydreaming about the second novel when I can't even knock out the first one! I so admire the people on this site with two or three novels already written and still writing away. That's really being a writer, isn't it - I mean, you're only a writer if you actually write! Maybe I should give up thinking I'm a writer and call myself a planner instead.
Yes
I'm doing short answers today in an effort to increase my 'real' writing time ;)