#writing

Writer's block…a lot of howling nonsense would be avoided if, in every sentence containing the word WRITER, that word was taken out and the word PLUMBER substituted; and the result examined for the sense it makes. Do plumbers get plumber's block? What would you think of a plumber who used that as an excuse not to do any work that day? The fact is that writing is hard work, and sometimes you don't want to do it, and you can't think of what to write next, and you're fed up with the whole damn business. Do you think plumbers don't feel like that about their work from time to time? Of course there will be days when the stuff is not flowing freely. What you do then is MAKE IT UP. I like the reply of the composer Shostakovich to a student who complained that he couldn't find a theme for his second movement. “Never mind the theme! Just write the movement!” he said. Writer's block is a condition that affects amateurs and people who aren't serious about writing. So is the opposite, namely inspiration, which amateurs are also very fond of. Putting it another way: a professional writer is someone who writes just as well when they're not inspired as when they are. ↗

— Philip Pullman

#business

I might be writing what people expect me to write, writing from that place where I might be ruled by economic considerations. To overcome that, I started working with my dreams, because I'm not so censored when I use dream material. ↗

— Kathy Acker

#censored #considerations #dream #dreams #economic

First of all, writing at best - certainly fiction writing - more and more I think is magic. ↗

— Kathy Acker

#certainly #fiction #fiction writing #first #first of all

I have learned many things in the 30 years that I have been writing. ↗

— Isabel Allende

#i #i have learned #learned #many #things

All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice, loyalty, violence, death, political and social issues, freedom. ↗

— Isabel Allende

#coming #death #end #freedom #haunt

At first, I see pictures of a story in my mind. Then creating the story comes from asking questions of myself. I guess you might call it the 'what if - what then' approach to writing and illustration. ↗

— Chris Van Allsburg

#asking #asking questions #call #comes #creating

If I didn't know the ending of a story, I wouldn't begin. I always write my last lines, my last paragraph first, and then I go back and work towards it. I know where I'm going. I know what my goal is. And how I get there is God's grace. ↗

— Katherine Anne Porter

#writing #writing-craft

Five common traits of good writers: (1) They have something to say. (2) They read widely and have done so since childhood. (3) They possess what Isaac Asimov calls a "capacity for clear thought," able to go from point to point in an orderly sequence, an A to Z approach. (4) They're geniuses at putting their emotions into words. (5) They possess an insatiable curiosity, constantly asking Why and How. ↗

— James J. Kilpatrick

#writing #writing-craft #writing-craft

If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit. ↗

— Robert McKee

#writing #writing-craft #writing-craft

It's best to have your tools with you. If you don't, you're apt to find something you didn't expect and get discouraged. ↗

— Stephen King

#tools #writing #writing-craft