The Master Book of Plots, Plotto, was written in 1928 by your favorite author and mine, William Wallace Cook, and Tin House has released it anew for your reading or writing pleasure. With well over a thousand plots, Plotto can spoil more stories than you can swap by the fireplace in a year of weekends. Of course, the joy is in the telling, which is why I’m working on revisions of The Tale of Two Cities and Macbeth. I may even combine the two–not sure.

Along these lines, Greg Bergstrom explains how the cliches line up in various TV mysteries and detective stories. “There are also 2.74 metric tons of clichés,” he says, “like the typical stubbly detective who breaks the rules, struggles with the bottle and tends to tune up suspected killers with a copy of the Manhattan Yellow Pages.”

Robert Bruce offer some good advice on writing, illustrating it with reference to Sherlock Holmes singular focus on crime solving. “Choose. Focus. Become an idiot.“

Novelist Geoff Dyer talks about the craft in The Guardian. “Writers are defined, in large measure, by what they can’t do. The mass of things that lie beyond their abilities force them to concentrate on the things they can,” he says. You can’t practice through your weaknesses like a tennis player, but neither is your work as defined as tennis is. One thing’s for certain: “it’s far easier to give advice about writing than it is to do it.” (via Andy Crouch and Alan Jacobs)

Damyanti has a long list of books on writing, which may remind you of that one you have been wanting to read or help you find one from an author you respect.

If this list is too daunting for you, then read these ten recommendations from Paste Magazine. In this list, Kevin Keller notes, “For most of us, that moment [of manic inspiration] never comes, and the only way to unleash creativity is through persistence and discipline.”

BBC News: “Charles Duncombe says an analysis of website figures shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half. Mr. Duncombe says when recruiting staff he has been ‘shocked at the poor quality of written English’.”

I agree with this article, but isn’t the period to go inside the quotation marks? Does British English differ from American English on end punctuation?

Nine tips for how not to say nothing in 500 words: e.g. avoid the obvious, go straight to the unique argument, and slip out of abstraction.

Author Rebecca Makkai suggests boiling your novel story idea into a party anecdote to see how it goes over with a live audience. With a little analysis, you may have your story pitch when your done or the realization that your original story wasn’t complete.