The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas.
Some writers write to forget. Some forget to write.
My advice to writers is this:Walk, talk, breathe, laugh, cry, fall, rise, fail, succeed, run, jump, love, hate, hide, seek, learn, work, play, feel, LIVE.Then write it down.
As a writer, I like the list of "things to strive for" that Richard Yates kept above his typewriter:genuine claritygenuine feelingthe right wordthe exact English sentencethe eloquent detailthe rigorou...
And as your writing evolves, what you need and get from it evolves.
Who will teach me to write? a reader wanted to know.The page, the page, that eternal blankness, the blankness of eternity which you cover slowly, affirming time's scrawl as a right and your daring as...
[G]ive nothing centrality, because writing is about continually shifting weight from one thing and moment to the other.
Developing your voice takes... time and practice.
Good advice is not often served in our favorite flavor.
To listen to critics, pro or con, and take their words to heart is to subcontract your self-esteem to strangers. (from Workbook)
Writing a book with completely fictitious characters is like running a democracy, centered around a capital state. You constantly live with the fear & suspicion that one of the characters will start a...