how to write oddly

if you read enough advice on how to write fiction — blog posts, novel writing manuals, that sort of thing — it all starts to sound the same. they all have that cheery self-help tone. and generally they give the same advice, too.

it's not necessarily bad advice. but creating art is weird and complicated, and tips meant for a general audience can only help a particular individual so much.

so this page is a collection of links to essays and other texts about writing fiction that approach it from oddball perspectives.

weird takes, personal reflections, and artistic contradictions ahoy!

How do you create an accordion?

Easy! As long as you don't have to support IE11 or older browsers you could use <details> and <summary> natively.

What if I have to support IE11 or older browsers?

No worries. The fallback for these elements is quite good. They will display as open. You won't get the open/close mechanism, but you won't lose any content either.

What type of content can I have inside one of these?

Almost anything you'd like. The <details> element allows all flow content, which is basically everything.

How does it work?

The <details> element encapsulates the <summary> element. The <summary> becomes the 'label' for the <details> and acts like a button. When clicked, the attribute open is added to the <details> element, making it display. You can therefore style the open and closed states seperately if you'd like.