#vice

From my writer's workshop, "Know when it's time to put everything you've got on the page. Then, rip open a vein and do it! ↗

— Heather Burch

#writing-advice

Never ask an elf for help; they might decide your better off dead, eh?" (Orik) (Eldest) (Page 207) ↗

— Christopher Paolini

#humor #ironic #random #humor

There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket. ↗

— Samuel Beckett

#writing-advice #writing-philosophy #writing-advice

a good writer should draw the reader in by starting in the middle of the story with a hook, then go back and fill in what happened before the hook. Once you have the reader hooked, you can write whatever you want as you slowly reel them in. ↗

— Roland Smith

#writing #writing-advice

...about clichés. Avoid them like the plague. ↗

— Khaled Hosseini

#writing-advice #writing-advice

There is a ruthlessness to the creative act. It often involves a betrayal of the status quo. ↗

— Alan Watt

#writing-advice #writing-from-the-heart #writing-process #writing-advice

Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. ↗

— Neil Gaiman

#writing-advice

I disagree with the advice of 'write about what you know.' Write about what you need to know, in an effort to understand. ↗

— Donald Windham

#understand #writing #writing-advice #writing-advice

In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won't get mixed up. It was the best advice Francie every got. ↗

— Betty Smith

#truth #writing-advice

But how?" my students ask. "How do you actually do it?" You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. So you sit down at, say, nine every morning, or ten every night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on the computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. You look at the ceiling, and over at the clock, yawn, and stare at the paper again. Then, with your fingers poised on the keyboard, you squint at an image that is forming in your mind -- a scene, a locale, a character, whatever -- and you try to quiet your mind so you can hear what that landscape or character has to say above the other voices in your mind. ↗

— Anne Lamott

#file #focus #how-to-write #imagine #quiet