It was just curiosity. And the top result was for a list of 10 compiled by writer Nicole Bianchi on her website! If you’re a Read More...
Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.
You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.
When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”
If the sex scene doesn’t make you want to do it — whatever it is they’re doing — it hasn’t been written right.
Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.
Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.
Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.

























