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Arthur Rimbaud (b. October 20): “Life is the farce we’re all forced to endure.”

20 Oct
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Arthur Rimbaud (born 20 October 1854, died 10 November 1891) was a French poet who produced his works while still in his late teens. Victor Hugo described him as ‘an infant Shakespeare’. He gave up creative writing before the age of 20. He was a restless soul who travelled on three continents before his death from cancer just after his 37th birthday.

Four quotes:

  1. Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.
  2. Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.
  3. I believe that I am in hell, therefore I am there.
  4. A thousand Dreams within me softly burn.

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Chuck Wendig: “Finish what you write.”

13 Oct
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The easiest way to separate yourself from the unformed blobby mass of “aspiring” writers is to (a) actually write and (b) actually finish. That’s how easy it is to clamber up the ladder to the second echelon. Write. And finish what you write. That’s how you break away from the pack and leave the rest of the sickly herd for the hungry wolves of shame and self-doubt. And for all I know, actual wolves.

~ CHUCK WENDIG (novelist, screenwriter, and game designer @ terribleminds.com) 

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Marina Lewycka (b. October 12): “Comedy can expose the soul” & other quotes on writing

12 Oct
Lewycka

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Marina Lewycka, born 12 October 1946, is a British novelist of Ukrainian origin. Her debut novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was long-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction.

Six quotes on writing:

  1. One of the nice things about being a writer is that no one recognizes you. 
  2. I’m a huge fan of Chaucer, he has the most wonderful characters, and I drew on him a lot for Two Caravans.
  3. My preferred place to write is in bed propped up with lots of cushions, and a nice pot of tea on a tray – but it can be hard on the back.
  4. I like to learn something as I write. I often start out with a subject I don’t know very much about and finding out more makes the process more interesting. 
  5. You think comedy isn’t serious, but with comedy you can say such a lot that serious can’t. Comedy can expose the depths of the soul; funny is what we are when we least intend to be.
  6. You must have a good story and find the right voice to tell it. Another useful tip is show, don’t tell. In other words, don’t write that a character behaved badly, show us their bad behavior instead.

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Arthur C. Clarke: Prophet of the Digital Age

11 Oct
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Guest post by Brandon Engel:

Touted as one of science fiction’s “Big Three” alongside Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, writer Arthur C. Clarke is warmly remembered, not merely for his prose, but his many contributions to universal knowledge across several different disciplines.

Geosynchronous Satellite Networks

In 1945, Clarke published an essay entitled Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage? which proposed a geosynchronous satellite communication network. Clarke’s time as a radar technician with the Royal Air Force likely contributed to this. The article also anticipated the creation of the International Space Station (ISS), with Clarke writing: “Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a ‘space-station’ in such an orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. This project might be undertaken for purely scientific reasons as it would contribute enormously to our knowledge of astronomy, physics and meteorology.” It’s all the more astounding because this article was written 12 years before the launch of Sputnik.

The Internet and Personal Computers

In 1974, Clarke gave a memorable interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company. The interview was conducted in a room with a gigantic, primitive computer.  The interviewer asked Clarke what the world would be like for adults living in the year 2001. Without skipping a beat, Clarke then detailed his vision of both the web and personal computers. Clarke predicted that by 2001, people would have “not a computer as big as this” (in reference to the gargantuan apparatus filling the space around him) “but at least a console through which he can talk to his friendly local computer, and get all of the information he needs for his everyday life.” Clarke then went on to list bank statements and theater reservations as two examples of the information we might retrieve electronically in the future.

Clarke was not the only one of his contemporaries to predict the internet. Asimov, for example, had also made predictions about the internet as early as 1964. What distinguishes Clarke the most in this arena was his contribution to the conceptual development of wireless communications, which ultimately yielded everything from  transcontinental television broadcasts to high speed internet.

2001Skype and iPad

As a science fiction writer, Clarke will probably be best remembered by the general public for the script he penned for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (and the novelization of the screenplay that was written concurrent to the movie). It’s one of the greatest films of all time, and it really set the benchmark for every science fiction epic that followed it. Something that makes the film particularly novel for contemporary audiences are the video conferencing consoles used. While the technology looks laughably dated today, what Clarke envisioned was, essentially, Skype. Also notable are the use of what are ostensibly iPads.

What’s the lesson that modern consumers should take from all of this? To figure out what Apple is going to release in the next five years, read something that Clarke wrote 50 years ago.

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Brandon Engel is a multimedia artist/blogger/cinephile/oddity collector based in Chicago, whose principal interests include vintage horror films, dated video games, and speculative fiction. Follow him on Twitter: @BrandonEngel2.

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Harold Pinter (b. October 10): “Language is a trampoline” & other quotes on writing

10 Oct
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Harold Pinter (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others’ works include The French Lieutenant’s Woman and The Trial. 

Six quotes on writing:

  1. Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.
  2. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
  3. I don’t give a damn what other people think. It’s entirely their own business. I’m not writing for other people.
  4. Language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you … at any time.
  5. I’m not committed as a writer, in the usual sense of the term, either religiously or politically. And I’m not conscious of any particular social function. I write because I want to write. I don’t see any placards on myself, and I don’t carry any banners.
  6. I think we communicate only too well, in our silence, in what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, desperate rearguard attempts to keep ourselves to ourselves. Communication is too alarming. To enter into someone else’s life is too frightening. To disclose to others the poverty within us is too fearsome a possibility.

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Belva Plain (b. October 9): “Read the best there is and thereby learn.”

9 Oct
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Belva Plain (9 October 1915 – 12 October 2010) was an American author. Over 30 million copies of her novels were printed in 22 languages. 21 of her novels appeared on the New York Times best-seller list.

Six quotes about writing:

  1. I’m an early riser, and morning is my work time. I have a special workroom where no one interrupts me except my dog.
  2. I write in longhand on a yellow pad. I don’t use a computer because I like to take time to think about what I’m saying. 
  3. I think it’s as difficult for me to describe the process of inspiration as it would be for a composer to tell how a melody took shape in his/her head. 
  4. My advice to would-be writers? READ. Read the best there is and thereby learn. And keep trying. Writing isn’t easy. It’s very hard work, requiring a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
  5. I wrote Evergreen because I had to. I had no real idea that it might be published. I know how competitive the world is and I didn’t want to become the sad victim of false hopes.
  6. I thought it was time to write about the kind of people I know. I got sick of reading the same old story, told by Jewish writers, of the same old stereotypes – the possessive mothers, the worn-out fathers, all the rest of the neurotic rebellious unhappy self-hating tribe. I wanted to write a different novel about Jews – and a truer one.

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Michael Korda (b. October 8): “Finish your first draft and then we’ll talk.”

8 Oct
Korda

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Michael Korda, born 8 October 1933, is an English-born writer and novelist who was editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City.

Quotes about writing:

  1. Finish your first draft and then we’ll talk.
  2. Ask a book publisher how many copies a book has sold, and he or she, presuming you’re not the author, will probably try to remember the size of the first printing, then double it. If you’re the author, the publisher will try to remember the number of copies that were shipped and cut that in half in order to avoid encouraging you to expect a big royalty check.
  3. Escapism sold books, to be sure, but not nearly as many as were sold by exposing America’s flaws and making the average American reader (and book club member) look closely at his or her most cherished social assumptions. Americans might not be eager to accept integration, feminism, homosexuality, juvenile delinquency, and the drug culture – or to shoulder the blame for the existence of these problems – but they were certainly willing to read about them.

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William Zinsser (b. October 7): “Writing is a craft not an art” & other quotes on writing

7 Oct
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William Zinsser, born 7 October 1922, is an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He is best known for the book, On Writing Well.

10 quotes on writing:

  1. Writing is a craft not an art.
  2. You learn to write by writing.
  3. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.
  4. Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost.
  5. Writers must constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don’t know.
  6. Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that don’t serve any purpose.
  7. Nothing has replaced the writer. He or she is still stuck with the same old job of saying something that other people will want to read.
  8. The reader will notice if you are putting on airs. Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.
  9. Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.
  10. Many people assume that professional writers don’t need to rewrite; the words just fall in place. On the contrary, careful writers can’t stop fiddling.

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Clive Barker (b. October 5): “Horror is the wild-dog genre” & other quotes on writing

5 Oct

Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English author, film director, video game designer and visual artist known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. He is best-known for his short stories which were adapted for film as the Hellraiser and Candyman series. He has also written 18 novels.

Eight quotes about writing:

  1. I firmly believe that a story is only as good as the villain.
  2. Books should make somebody look at how they feel, be honest with themselves.
  3. Nothing ever begins. There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs.
  4. Gather experience… Look at what you should not look at. A feeling of anxiety is the sure and certain evidence that you should do this.
  5. Horror fiction shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.
  6. By and large, horror fiction is the most difficult to domesticate because part of the point is that it’s one step ahead – or behind – everybody else’s taste. And I’m not really convinced I’d like it to change. There’s something very healthy about horror fiction being always a little bit on the outside. It’s the wild-dog genre.
  7.  One of the things I’m trying to do over and over again in my books is create new mythologies, create new ways to understand the complexity of the world. I think what mythology does is impress upon chaotic experience the patterns, hierarchies and shapes which allow us to interpret the chaos and make fresh sense of it.
  8. Movies are much more fascist than books. They tell you what to feel, when to feel it. Popular movies manipulate you. Music tells you when it’s a sad part and when it’s a happy part. You’re obliged to watch them at the speed the filmmaker has created for you. That, I think, is one of the reasons why they’re so popular – because you don’t have to think very hard. The filmmaker has done all the thinking for you.

 

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Jackie Collins (b. October 4): “Inspiration is all around me” & other quotes about writing

4 Oct

Jackie Collins (born 4 October 1937) is an English novelist who has written 29 novels and sold over 500 million copies. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen.

Here’s what she has to say about writing:

  1. If you want to be a writer, stop talking about it and sit down and write!
  2. I’ve come a long way! My message to women is, girls can do anything.
  3. I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down – the truth is much more bizarre.
  4. I should be writing until I drop. I’ll be a little old lady of 106. I never see myself stopping what I do because it’s my passion.
  5. I think I’m a born storyteller. Inspiration is all around me. I can read a newspaper article and come up with an idea for a book.
  6.  I really fall in love with my characters, even the bad ones. I love getting together with them. They tell me what to do; they take me on a wild and wonderful trip.
  7. I’ve written 20 books, and each one is like having a baby. Writing is not easy; some people want to write books but just can’t put a story together. I can put together a story that interests both me and my readers.

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