"Brain Pickings" for Writers

I've become lost in this really cool website called Brain Pickings. There are tons of writing inspirations in its pages, and I feel like I've seeped into my computer and laid down in the articles and wallowed around in the words. And a piece of my writer self feels even more mentally unbalanced than I realized I was, but another piece feels like it can conquer the writing world. 

What websites on writing make you feel like you can conquer the writing world?

 

2013: My Burning Year

I'm officially naming 2013 my burning year. 

I'll be symbolically burning anything that doesn't further my writing and life goals. I've already started by "burning" one of my clients who's consuming my time and creative energy.

Are you "burning" anything in 2013?

Nothing New Under the Writing Sun

The realization that there is nothing new under the sun has hit me really hard the past few days. I've become obsessed with it.

I'm always looking for a new story to tell when in fact what I should be seeking is a fresh and entertaining way to tell an old story. Every storyline (whether you believe in three, five, ten, or more plot theories) basically shakes out to one--there's a dude with a problem, and will he overcome? Dude can be literal or symbolic--one or more actual dudes (or she-dudes) or a city of rabbits. It's all the same.

Even the core "problems" (those three, five, ten, or more plots) have become trite. It's the telling of the story that makes it fresh and entertaining--but the story itself is nothing new under the sun, ever.

Have you ever read any story or seen any movie where there wasn't a "dude" with a core problem?