“The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” ~ Neil Gaiman
poems
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Letting Go
“If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.” ~ John Steinbeck
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ When Should You Begin to Rewrite?
“Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.”
~ John Steinbeck
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Simple Rules for Writing
8 Simple Rules for Writing
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the worlds, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Don’t Listen to Naysayers
“”Don’t give up, and don’t lose your stubborn belief that you have a story worth telling. I’ve had so many people tell me over so many years that I didn’t have the qualities needed to be a writer. All of my writer friends and I have one thing in common: We didn’t listen to the naysayers. We kept writing. And eventually we have all been published.” ~ David S. Laskar
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Write and Write Until It’s Finished
“Don’t look back until you’ve written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceeding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in the edit.” ~ Will Self
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ 10 Writing Tips
10 Writing Tips from Ian Rankin
- Read lots.
- Write lots.
- Learn to be self-critical.
- Learn what criticism to accept.
- Be persistent.
- Have a story worth telling.
- Don’t give up.
- Know the market.
- Get lucky.
- Stay lucky.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Have a Good Story Idea? Be Flexible
“If you have a good story idea, don’t assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.” ~Hilary Mantel
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Let the Story Unfold as You Write
“When I’m deep inside a story, living it as I write, I honestly don’t know what will happen. I try not to dictate it, not to play God.” ~ Michael Moorpurgo
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Finding New Ideas
“Ted Hughes gave me this advice and it works wonders: record moments, fleeting impressions, overheard dialogue, your own sadnesses and bewilderments and joys.” ~ Michael Morpurgo
