The Structure of the Magic Tale and Some Feeds You Can't Miss

Stumbled on a lot of great writing stuff this week. Probably my favorite is “Propp's Structure of the Magic Tale.” With this structure, you could write a great novel in almost any setting. It has all the twists and meaning built into it. You just need the voice and the world.

If you are into RSS feeds at all, there are two sites that are a must for any writer. If you are into RSS and don’t subscribe to these feeds you aren’t a writer, you’re something worse—like a dilettante or a poet.

The first feed is Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. Garrison picks a poem every day, and it’s usually pretty good. But the real fun is his tributes to writers on their birthdays. He tells the writer’s story with some shading you’d never heard before and adds some of the author’s own words. In his recent take on Charles Bukowski, he included Buk’s quote, “Bad luck for the young poet would be a rich father, an early marriage, an early success or the ability to do anything well." That’s fun stuff.

The second great feed treasure for writers is DailyLit. You can sign up for free classics from Tolstoy, Dickens, Austen and the usual suspects. About five pages of the work are sent to you daily to your RSS reader or email. Great way to distract yourself and catch up on the cannon.

Here are a few great sites that offer tons of links to stuff you’ve probably seen but in an organized, centralized way: 50 of the Best Websites for Writers, 10 Ways to Become a Better Writer and Writers Resources at Science Fiction & Fantasy Novelists.