Two for the price of one...

Two links today. The first I'm really pleased about because it started as a suggestion here, which is the list of writerly do's and don'ts... Clare's written one here - I really love the image of someone standing behind the writer and making comments - a backseat writer. (Can I borrow that, Clare?) And Lane's done her own list too, which reminds me all over again just how important notebooks are. What interested me too is that we did this in my writing group last week, and deadlines came up there as something that helped - seems we writers buck against structure but need it too. Actually the more I think about writing at all it's about tensions, choices between two things.

The second link just made me laugh a lot. Because of course I had noticed that the today programme and radio news do keep saying 'The Prime Minister Gordon Brown' in a way I'm sure they didn't en-title Tony Blair, but it's the beauty of humour - when they just pick up something so simple and twist it perfectly. Ouch.

(Actually, keeping on Gordon Brown, so this is a real bargain post - at the 46664 concert last night there was a moment when the screen above the stage flashed to Nelson Mandela in his special room and who should be on the sofa but the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Laughing. Yep, that's right. We all turned to each other and asked the same question, 'Was that really GB laughing?' If I were his campaign manager, I'd be suggesting more of the laughing-business. He actually looked quite nice, although I did spend a lot of the Simple Minds set wondering what they might have been talking about. Not Zimbabwe for a start.)

(And talking of Zimbabwe - it's ok, I will go eventually and you can get on with writing or reading or whatever it is normal people do on a Saturday night - Debi Alper has a great post up about what we can do. If you're feeling as hopeless about it all as me, I urge you to read and follow through. It might not be the first post now btw so please scroll down.)