“You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
poems
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Dealing with Writer’s Block
“I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen-whether I’m working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book-it’s usually because I’m trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Writing Practice Tip
“Just go outside and look at something and write it down and you’ll find it is a very nice piece of writing.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Adding a Twist
“And I love the twist. I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, and on the very last page, quite often – very last paragraph sometimes – I like to just play with your perception one more time in a way that makes everything that came before just a little bit different.” ~ Harlan Coben
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ The Pleasure in Discovering What Your Book is About
“At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.”
~ Elmore Leonard
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ The Essence of Writing
Writing, basically breaks down to relationships between people and that is what you write about.
~ Leon Uris
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ The First Draft is Only the Start
“It’s one of the things writing students don’t understand. They write a first draft and are quite disappointed, or often should be disappointed. They don’t understand that they have merely begun, and that they may be merely beginning even in the second or third draft.”
~ Elizabeth Hardwick
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Want to Learn about Writing?
“Learn about writing from reading. That is the right way to do it.” ~ Maxwell Perkins
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Who are you Trying to Please by Writing?
“My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too.” ~ Elmore Leonard
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Want to be a Writer?
“If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.”
