Post number one. Hi there!

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Post number one. Hi there!

November 19, 2015July 21, 2023 529

Welcome to the Ghostwriters Central blog. This blog will be authored by me, for the time being. We do hope you will find it to be useful, informative or entertaining. Or all three. –Michael McKown.

I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

Roald Dahl

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

Mickey Spillane

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.

Mark Twain

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.

William C. Gault

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.

Stephen Leigh

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.

Lisa See

I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has just put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.

Gloria Steinem

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.

John Campbell

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.

Quentin Tarantino

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

Harlan Ellison

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.

Douglas Adams

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Thomas Jefferson

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.

Roddy Doyle

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

Clarence Budington Kelland

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.