Posts about the craft of writing.
The characters are telling you the story. I’m not telling you the story, they’re going to do it. If I do it right, you will get the whole story.
A-Z Quotes. (2019). TOP 14 QUOTES BY GEORGE V. HIGGINS | A-Z Quotes. [online] Available at: https://www.azquotes.com/author/26300-George_V_Higgins [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].
A cop told me, a long time ago, that there’s no substitute for knowing what you’re doing. Most of us scribblers do not. The ones that’re any good are aware of this. The rest write silly stuff. The trouble is this: The readers know it.
A-Z Quotes. (2019). TOP 14 QUOTES BY GEORGE V. HIGGINS | A-Z Quotes. [online] Available at: https://www.azquotes.com/author/26300-George_V_Higgins [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].
You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.
Goodreads.com. (2019). Neil Gaiman Quotes (Author of American Gods). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1221698.Neil_Gaiman [Accessed 10 Nov. 2019].
I can’t write if it bores me. Two things count: it has to be interesting and I have to care about the character.
Goodreads.com. (2019). Martin Cruz Smith Quotes (Author of Gorky Park). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/8258.Martin_Cruz_Smith [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
Don’t fall prey to the belief that it’s magic. It’s just a craft.
TED-Ed Blog. (2019). Neal Stephenson’s writing advice for students (and everyone else). [online] Available at: http://blog.ed.ted.com/2015/06/04/neal-stephensons-writing-advice-for-students-and-everyone-else/ [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019].
Sometimes people are led to believe that writing is a kind of fine art, where some mysterious inspiration strikes and magic happens. I think it’s more like cabinet making or soccer playing, where if you do it a whole lot you get good at it, and if you stop doing it you either stop getting good at it or you actually lose ability.
TED-Ed Blog. (2019). Neal Stephenson’s writing advice for students (and everyone else). [online] Available at: http://blog.ed.ted.com/2015/06/04/neal-stephensons-writing-advice-for-students-and-everyone-else/ [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019].
A classic mistake that I see people making is that they’ll put a lot of effort into writing their first book — and then they’ll stop and spend two years trying to sell their book, or trying to improve their book by tiny little increments, or both. And the whole time that they’re doing that, they’re wasting time that they could be spending writing their second book. What they should do is write their second book, and when they finish their second book, write their third book. One does actually get better, and I think the improvement is noticeable. Eventually, it pays off.
TED-Ed Blog. (2019). Neal Stephenson’s writing advice for students (and everyone else). [online] Available at: http://blog.ed.ted.com/2015/06/04/neal-stephensons-writing-advice-for-students-and-everyone-else/ [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019].
