“One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that you’re constantly dredging up some arcane knowledge or long-forgotten experience, rediscovering old passions and interests.”
writer’s block
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Writing is Like Being in Love
“Writing is like being in love. You never get better at it or learn more about it. The day you think you do is the day you lose it. Robert Frost called his work a lover’s quarrel with the world. It’s ongoing. It has neither a beginning nor an end. You don’t have to worry about learning things. The fire of one’s art burns all the impurities from the vessel that contains it.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Writing as Personal Freedom
“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ What is a Story?
“A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell them to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ The Key to the Short Story
“Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Writing as a Form of Therapy
“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Dare to Write Dangerously
“The important thing is not what we write but how we write, and in my opinion the modern writer must be an adventurer above all, willing to take every risk, and be prepared to founder in his effort if need be. In other words we must write dangerously.” ~ James Joyce
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ A Writing Plan
“Write a page a day. It will add up.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ What is good narration?
“I think all good narration contains an element of mystery and suspense. If it didn’t, if the storyline were predictable, we would have no interest in reading it.”
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Is There a Difference in Writing for Adults and Younger Readers?
“It’s actually not very hard to re-set between the adult novels and the ones for younger readers. The narrative voices are very similar, the smartass attitude, the environmental battles. Kids love books that are irreverent and challenge authority, when authority is arbitrary, greedy or foolish. They also love it when you make fun of grownups, and I’ve spent my whole life as a writer doing that.
