John Hodgman's Advice to Aspiring Writers

Posted on January 22, 2013

Author, actor and former literary agent John Hodgman gives some pithy advice to aspiring writers. Hodgman says that he became a literary agent for seven years to avoid actually writing anything. He said it was an extreme procrastination technique. During his years of reading submissions, he learned a few things.

He divides writers into three categories: the Crazy, the Medium/low talented and the Super Talented. He says the Medium/low talented group does the best because they persevere. They submit endlessly and work really hard. The super talented hardly ever submit and the crazy, well, they're crazy.

As for the standard advice to write what you know? Hodgman declares, "It's not enough to write what you know. You have to know interesting things." So true. We really wish they hadn't cancelled Bored to Death. Hodgman was hilarious in it. Take a look: