on-writing

I have found that a writer is formed not so much by their experiences but by the way in which they view and capture those experiences.

My writing, it__ my way of making sense of everything. My way to feel whole. May I never be complete and may I never feel content _ please, let me always have the need, always have the urge to write._

Any writer who puts his words and thoughts out into the public is going to be criticized.

I learn my world through writing.

Almost every single thing you hope publication will do for you is a fantasy, a hologram--it's the eagle on your credit card that only seems to soar.

Learn to enjoy this tidying process. I don't like to write; I like to have written. But I love to rewrite. I especially like to cut: to press the DELETE key and see an unnecessary word or phrase or sentence vanish into the electricity. I like to replace a humdrum word with one that has more precision or color. I like to strengthen the transition between one sentence and another. I like to rephrase a drab sentence to give it a more pleasing rhythm or a more graceful musical line. With every small refinement I feel that I'm coming nearer to where I would like to arrive, and when I finally get there I know it was the rewriting, not the writing, that wont the game.

It wont do to say that the reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the train of thought. If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't been careful enough

But on the question of who you're writing for, don't be eager to please.

But apart from these lazinesses of logic, what makes the story so tired is the failure of the writer to reach for anything but the nearest cliche'. "Shouldered his way," "only to be met," "crashing into his face," "waging a lonely war," "corruption that is rife," "sending shock waves," "New York's finest," - these dreary phrases constitute writing at its most banal. We know just what to expect. No surprise awaits us in the form of an unusual word, an oblique look. We are in the hands of a hack, and we know it right away, We stop reading.

For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.

There may be a Nurse Ratched-like listing of things that must be done right this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that must be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed. But you hold an imaginary gun to your head and make yourself stay at the desk.

It wont do to say that the reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the train of thought. If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't be careful enough.

I write because I am a writer, not because I want to get anything out of it.

Don__ quit. It__ very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it__ very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can__ get fired if you don__ write, and most of the time you don__ get rewarded if you do. But don__ quit.

People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them.

There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.

I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.

I'm not much of a believer in the so-called character study; I think that in the end, the story should always be the boss.