“I think writer’s block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.” ~ Roy Blount Jr.
story line
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ What’s the Deal with Describing Places and Things?
Don’t go into great detail describing places and things, unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill. ~ Elmore Leonard
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ What are the Rules for Writing a Novel?
“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”
~ Doris Lessing
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Who Should Write to Please?
“You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn’t care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can’t be a way of life – the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.”
~ Doris Lessing
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ When is the Right Time 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.” ~ John Steinbeck
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Inspiration to Write is Everywhere
“I never set out to write a whole book about my dog Colter, much less two books, but he was such a force, such a marvelous animal and taught me so much — about hunting, certainly, but about barely controllable and indomitable passion as well — that in his absence my pen has been moving and even now has not yet ceased.”
Rick Bass
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Have You Found Your Hidden Nerve?
Discover Your Hidden Nerve
A hidden nerve is what every writer is ultimately about. It’s what all writers wish to uncover when writing about themselves in this age of the personal memoir. And yet it’s also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep, to disguise, as though this nerve were a deep and shameful secret that needs to be swathed in many sheaths. Some don’t even know they’ve screened this nerve from their own gaze, let alone another’s. Some crudely mistake confession for introspection. Others, more cunning perhaps, open tempting shortcuts and roundabout passageways, the better to mislead everyone. Some can’t tell whether they’re writing to strip or hide that secret nerve.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Learning to Write from the Heart
“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”
~ Gustave Flaubert
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Writing is Like Driving in the Fog
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights,
but you can make the whole trip that way.”
~ E.L Doctorow
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Opening Sentence from Ralph Ellison’s Novel, “Invisible Man”
“I am an invisible man.”
~ Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
