writing-process

You haven't seen yourself until you look through the eyes of your characters.

It was a dark and stormy night. . .perfect for staying indoors and writing a novel!

It__ amazing how my mind opens up right when I have to run on the treadmill. I__e finished three chapters rather than run a mile.

I make up as little as possible. I spend a great deal of time on research, on finding all the available accounts of a scene or incident, finding out all the background details and the biographies of the people involved there, and I try to run up all the accounts side by side to see where the contradictions are and to look where things have gone missing. And it's really in the gap - it's in the erasures - that I think the novelist can best go to work because inevitably in history in any period, we know a lot about what happened, but we may be far hazier on why it happened. And there's always the question, why did it happen the way it did? Where was the turning point?

Inspiration do not come and cannot be found, it has to exist - somewhere, somehow. Do believe that what you are doing is the most important thing in this world, and do believe that your words can be magical. Because I know they can be and I know they are. If you feel that you are lost in your own mind, don__ think, just write. Sometimes we have to erase our thoughts and memories to gain enough strength to be able to write down our inner thoughts. If you don__ know what it is, if you think it__ ridiculous or silly, you__e definitely on the right way. Sometimes you will hate your words and sometimes you will love them. This is the fun part of greatness in which the other part definitely will be your devil. Remember; with greatness comes obstacles.

Never use the passive voice. Do not say, 'It will get done.' Say, 'I'll do it,' and then stick to a solid, unwavering deadline

Don't fool yourself. Talking about writing is not the same as actually doing it.

I come up with an idea and I__l start throwing little suggestions for possible scenes into a folder, but before I seriously sit down to write Word One, they whole outline is finished. Sue me. It works.

A day of bad writing is always better than a day of no writing.

I only write when the spirit moves me ... and the spirit moves me every day. William Faulkner, Oxford, Mississippi

The novella will be called, I think, __he Messiah of Stockholm._ It takes place in Stockholm. I__ better say no more, or the Muse will wipe it out.

Nobody whispers it in your ear. It is like something you memorized once and forgot. Now it comes back and rips away your breath. You find and finger a phrase at a time; you lay it down cautiously, as if with tongs, and wait suspended until the next one finds you: Ah yes, then this; and yes, praise be, then this.

We humans are the only creatures on the planet capable of articulating worlds which are contrary, even in the most minor way, to reality. Every story, I think, begins there. With a dream. A fantasy.

When you know what you want to communicate, ask yourself: Who is my audience and what does he know about the subject?

Do not worry about what words to use. Worry about why this story needs to be told and the rest will take care of itself.

I would write:"The soft melting hunk of butter trickled in gold down the stringy grooves of the split yam."Or:"The child's clumsy fingers fumbled in sleep, feeling vainly for the wish of its dream.""The old man huddled in the dark doorway, his bony face lit by the burning yellow in the windows of distant skycrapers."My purpose was to capture a physical state or movement that carried a strong subjective impression, an accomplishment which seemed supremely worth struggling for. If I could fasten the mind of the reader upon words so firmly that he would forget words and be conscious only of his response, I felt that I would be in sight of knowing how to write narrative.

The challenge of the writer is to transform__rtistically and imaginatively__ unique personal experience into a universal, meaningful story.

I've discovered that sometimes writing badly can eventually lead to something better. Not writing at all leads to nothing.