Do they enjoy it? They being writers and it being writing. Some do ('I gain nothing but pleasure from writing fiction'), and some don't ('Writing novels is no fun; nor is, generally speaking, reading novels. Reading people writing about novels...

On the Freakonomics blog, Stephen J Dubner, inspired by Wordsmith.org, considers the challenge of writing with self-imposed constraints - such as writing a novel in which every sentence contains a negative.

Someone close to me, much to my annoyance, has for years insisted that the same applies equally to writers who lay claim to logic, argument or worldly judgment. Writing – any writing – is like knitting, he says. It’s an unintellectual knack that some people have naturally, and which develops astonishingly with practice, but which

This is just a short item about the standard of writing, both in general and in the sphere of political commentary... For a few years now, I have been watching not only the organisational sources of various forms of public writing, but also — and more specifically — the political columnists themselves. They tend to fall into various categories as regards their own political leanings, whether a...

After novelist Colm Tóibín's claim that he doesn't enjoy writing , The Guardian asks leading writers if they, too, find it a chore. AL Kennedy: The joy of writing for a living is that you get to do it all the time. The misery is that you have to, whether you're in the mood or not... I'm with...

As TV companies around the world look for ways to save money, in America, reports Cynthia Littleton for Variety, writing jobs could be cut. Industry sources say studios producing skeins for Big Four nets are pushing for cuts of as much as 10%-15% in the writing budget for returning series, while...

Paul Flynn MP has posted this little competition on his blog. Can you help with a snappy book title? I am committed to writing / re-writing two book in the August recess. While the MPs' labours continue throughout August the pace slackens and I usually devote a couple of hours a day to writing. The core of my autobiography has already been published in Welsh 12 years ago. It will now be rewri...

I don’t need to tell you about the shit that Tim has had to go through whilst investigating the Glen Jenvey/Sun/Jewish hit list story, do I? Good. Well, Tim has asked for a hand, writing to your MP about the behaviour Patrick Mercer. Here is my letter, via WriteToThem.com to Dr Evan Harris… Dear Evan Harris, I am writing because

Two-thirds of 13-year-olds are failing to reach expected standards of writing, according to the results of a major survey.

Gordon Brown's attempt to spin out of the smeargate scandal by writing a letter to Gus O'Donnell to demand that writing smears is specifically excluded in the Special Advisers' Code of Conduct, is ludicrous even by New Labour standards. The implication is that McBride was doing this because writing stories alleging things about opposition MPs and dildoes is not covered in the code. ...