More Big 10 Writer
As part of Writer’s Digest magazine’s special September “Big 10 Issue”, we whipped up a set of tongue-in-cheek staff listings to run in the InkWell section. And we had so much fun compiling the staff picks that we couldn’t stop there.
Check out the magazine for six more lists—featuring everything from the Top 10 Writers We’d Love to Discover (More) Posthumous Work From, to the Top 10 Writers, Dead or Alive, We’d Love to Have Drinks With. Then, drop by to post a top 10 list of your own, and to read lists by other WD community members.
Top 10 Best Places in the World to Write
1. Coffee shops—You might say they’re sacred grounds. (Get it? Grounds?)
2. In an airplane—It’s a good excuse not to talk to the nervous guy next to you. Plus, people bring you snacks halfway through.
3. A hotel bar—Best. Character studies. Ever.
4. Central Park.
5. The Overlook Hotel in winter—Come on, it’s beautiful. What could go wrong?
6. On a train to London.
7. In the courtyard of Notre Dame in Paris.
8. Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter—It’s already pumped out 15 million words and sold for $254,000 at auction, but there’s got to be a bestseller left in it, right?
9. A room with a view.
10. A room with no view but your own.
Top 10 Celebrities-Turned-Authors We Can’t Bring Ourselves to Hate
1. Steve Martin—We were skeptical when he penned a “novella” that just seemed like a short novel. We remember thinking he was trying to sound literary by using the word novella. But you can’t deny Shop Girl was charming. Just like his banjo playing.
2. Jamie Lee Curtis—This scream queen helps children get in touch with their feelings.
3. Stephen Colbert—We’d try a one-liner here, but Colbert would easily out-one-liner us. So we won’t even bother.
4. Carrie Fisher—She was Princess Leia. And, the girl can write.
5. James Franco—After that “General Hospital” stint, we think it’s safe to assume he’s not taking himself too seriously.
6. Hugh Laurie—We haven’t read it, but if (British) Dr. House can fake an American accent that well, something tells us there are no limits to his superpowers.
7. Tyra Banks—Why shouldn’t fiction be “fierce”?
8. Bryan Batt—Two words: “Mad Men.”
9. Damon Wayans—The “In Living Color” and Mo’ Money star has released an inspirational novel about the Red Hat Society. It’s so strangely awesome we’re incapable of hating it.
10. Ethan Hawke—Hey, it could have been worse.
Top 10 Book-to-Movie Adaptations We Wish Never Would Have Happened
1. The Da Vinci Code
2. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Not that we’ve all seen it, but Audrey Niffenegger seems to wish it had never happened, and that’s good enough for us.)
3. Swamp Thing, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta, and virtually every Alan Moore adaptation, with the exception, arguably, of Watchmen (And now you can officially call us nerds.)
4. Twilight
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas/The Cat in the Hat (The live actor versions, that is. There’s just no way to portray those characters without them looking entirely creepy.)
6. Everything Is Illuminated
7. The Scarlet Letter (Why do we think that steamy bathtub scene wasn’t exactly what Hawthorne had in mind?)
8. Eat, Pray, Love (It isn’t out yet, but we’re expecting the worst.)
9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
10. So Quiet On the Canine Front (Yes, this actually exists. And yes, it involves a dog-based World War 1 reenactment.)
