On Writing

On Writing

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Highlights

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr and E. B. White. — location: 112

to write is human, to edit is divine. — location: 118

almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. — location: 536

the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s. — location: 890

Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position. — location: 892

I bargained, because that’s what addicts do. — location: 1155

I was charming, because that’s what addicts are. — location: 1155

The idea that creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time. — location: 1162

It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around. — location: 1194

All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation. — location: 1199

Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page. — location: 1246

As the whore said to the bashful sailor, ‘It ain’t how much you’ve got, honey, it’s how you use it.’ — location: 1300

the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful — location: 1345

gerund (verb form used as a noun) and a participle (verb form used as an adjective). — location: 1366

‘Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules.’ — location: 1385

Grammar is not just a pain in the ass; it’s the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking. — location: 1395

You should avoid the passive tense. — location: 1409

remember: The writer threw the rope, not The rope was thrown by the writer. — location: 1431

The adverb is not your friend. — location: 1433

the road to hell is paved with adverbs, — location: 1444

Writing is refined thinking. — location: 1531

Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes. — location: 1563

Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction. If not so, why do so many couples who start the evening at dinner wind up in bed? — location: 1565

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. — location: 1656

What could be more encouraging to the struggling writer than to realize his/her work is unquestionably better than that of someone who actually got paid for his/her stuff? — location: 1671

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. — location: 1690

Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in. The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows. Waiting rooms were made for books – of course! But so are theater lobbies before the show, long and boring checkout lines, and everyone’s favorite, the john. You can even read while you’re driving, thanks to the audiobook revolution. Of the books I read each year, anywhere from six to a dozen are on tape. — location: 1691

Where else can you read? There’s always the treadmill, or whatever you use down at the local health club to get aerobic. — location: 1698

Constant reading will pull you into a place (a mind-set, if you like the phrase) where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness. — location: 1729

The biggest aid to regular (Trollopian?) production is working in a serene atmosphere. It’s difficult for even the most naturally productive writer to work in an environment where alarms and excursions are the rule rather than the exception. — location: 1779

What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all … as long as you tell the truth. — location: 1823

What would be very wrong, I think, is to turn away from what you know and like (or love, the way I loved those old ECs and black-and-white horror flicks) in favor of things you believe will impress your friends, relatives, and writing-circle colleagues. — location: 1837

The writer who is serious and committed is incapable of sizing up story material the way an investor might size up various stock offerings, picking out the ones which seem likely to provide a good return. — location: 1844

there’s a difference between lecturing about what you know and using it to enrich the story. The latter is good. The former is not. — location: 1866

You as a beginning writer would do well not to imitate the lawyers-in-trouble genre Grisham seems to have created but to emulate Grisham’s openness and inability to do anything other than get right to the point. — location: 1884

What you know makes you unique in some other way. Be brave. Map the enemy’s positions, come back, tell us all you know. — location: 1886

In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech. — location: 1888

because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible. — location: 1893

my books tend to be based on situation rather than story. — location: 1908

A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot moot, — location: 1977

The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a What-if question: — location: 1978

there is a huge difference between story and plot. — location: 1986

Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. — location: 2030

It’s not just a question of how to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. — location: 2031

Description begins with visualization of what it is you want the reader to experience. It ends with your translating what you see in your mind into words on the page. — location: 2033

Thin description leaves the reader feeling bewildered and nearsighted. Overdescription buries him or her in details and images. — location: 2037

Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s. — location: 2046

good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. — location: 2052

narration – action, if you like that word better. — location: 2081

In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling. — location: 2089

one of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never tell us a thing if you can show us, instead: — location: 2125

Boredom can be a very good thing for someone in a creative jam. — location: 2426

Pace is the speed at which your narrative unfolds. — location: 2659

The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don’t get carried away with the rest. — location: 2747

Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. — location: 3258

I’m hopeful that you’ll see how raw the first-draft work of even a so-called ‘professional writer’ is once you really examine it. — location: 3339

2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. — location: 3342

Write a lot and read a lot. — location: 3370

‘Hard writing makes for easy reading.’ — location: 3626

sometimes you can kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight. — location: 3690