It’s a page on this website, located here. I’ve been collecting informative and witty comments from writers for years. Read More...
It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.
My aim is to put down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way I can tell it.
If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Editor: A person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.
I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.
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.
Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.
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.
It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.
The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.
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.
























