This entry comes The Mechanic & the Muse , "an owners manual for writers" -- the terrific blog of respected journalist, columnist and teacher Chip Scanlan. It appeared on 3/6/6.

In his autobiography-cum-writing manual "On Writing," Stephen King recalls the summer day when he helped his Uncle Oren fix a broken screen at the back of his house. Uncle Oren was a carpenter and, like all craftsmen, he had a receptacle to hold his tools. King's description is lyrical:

Creating Passionate Users is a remarkable blog written by the authors of the best-selling Head First computer book series. They're passionate about studying how the brain works -- and how to exploit it for better learning and memory. This entry appeared on 3/3/06.

The only thing standing between you-as-amateur and you-as-expert is dedication. All that talk about prodigies? We could all be prodigies (or nearly so) if we just put in the time and focused. At least that's what the brain guys are saying. Best of all--it's almost never too late.

This entry comes from an outstanding blog called Gangrey that describes itself as "prolonging the slow death of newspapers." It highlights great writing from papers across the country. This entry appeared on 07/26/05:

Just how many stories ARE there? Got in the mail in a package from Amazon.com a big fat book called The Seven Basic Plots. In it a dorky British guy named Christopher Booker says that's how many stories there are.

1. Rebirth
2. Tragedy
3. Comedy
4. The Quest
5. Voyage and Return
6. Rags to Riches
7. Overcoming the Monster

That's it.

Discuss.