#tin

I had declared in public my desire to be a writer ... I wanted to develop a curiosity that was oceanic and insatiable as well as a desire to learn and use every word in the English language that didn't sound pretentious or ditzy. ↗

— Pat Conroy

#writing-craft

For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying. ↗

— Stephen Dobyns

#writing-craft

Good fiction makes the truth believable. ↗

— Tarrant Smith

#writing-craft

A dear and long-time friend,... asked me, "Jack, how long does it usually take you to write a book?" I replied, "Of course it depends on the project and its requirements, each book has its own rules. But for a statement to the world at large, once I've thought a book through and written it in my mind, it takes me around a week or so, depending on this and that, ordinarily at the rate of a chapter a day, but I've had some two-chapters day and some chapters have taken two days. And then of course there is revision, but around a week is about right." He seemed surprised, and I was surprised by his surprise, so I thought, maybe I'm wrong. I went home and wrote this book, at the perfectly normal pace of a chapter a day, as usual... ↗

— Jacob Neusner

#writing-craft #writing-craft

You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do with it? ↗

— L.M. Montgomery

#l-m-montgomery

Don't try to write anything you can't feel - it will be a failure - 'echoes nothing worth ↗

— L.M. Montgomery

#worth #writing #l-m-montgomery

Sound is so important to creative writing. Think of the sounds you hear that you include and the similes you use to describe what things sound like. 'As she walked up the alley, her polyester workout pants sounded like windshield wipers swishing back and forth.' Cadence, onomatopoeia, the poetry of language are all so important. Learn all that you can about how to bring sound into your work. ↗

— Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

#simile

I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#writing-books

Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream. ↗

— Iris Murdoch

#distant #hear #other #ours #people

I am not a fan of the magical quick fix in any fiction, including fantasy, scifi and comic books. Unless Dr. Who is involved, and then only because we get to use the phrase 'Timey-wimey wibbliness' which, I'm sure you'll agree, there are not enough occasions to drop into ordinary adult conversation. ↗

— Chris Dee

#deus-ex-machina #dr-who #fantasy-genre #magic #science-fiction