“The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.”
~ Ralph Ellison, b. 1 March 1914
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463747303/
Archive | Writing RSS feed for this section
Elizabeth George (b. February 26): “I have to know the killer…”
26 Feb
pinterest.com/pin/39406565465739058/
Elizabeth George, born 26 February 1949, is an American author of mystery novels set in Great Britain. 11 of her novels have been adapted for television by the BBC as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.
Quotes on writing:
- It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.
- I wish that I’d known back then that a mastery of process would lead to a product. Then I probably wouldn’t have found it so frightening to write.
- I find it both fascinating and disconcerting when I discover yet another person who believes that writing can’t be taught. Frankly, I don’t understand this point of view.
- I have to know the killer, the victim and the motive when I begin. Then I start to create the characters and see how the novel takes shape based on what these people are like.
- Essentially and most simply put, plot is what the characters do to deal with the situation they’re in. It’s a logical sequence of events that grow from an initial incident that alters the status quo of the characters.
- Plotting is difficult for me, and always has been. I do that before I actually start writing, but I always do characters, and the arc of the story, first… You can’t do anything without a story arc. Where is it going to begin, where will it end.
- Lots of people want to have written; they don’t want to write. In other words, they want to see their name on the front cover of a book and their grinning picture on the back. But this is what comes at the end of a job, not at the beginning.
Anais Nin (b. February 21): “If you don’t cry out or sing, then don’t write.”
21 Feb
“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”
~ Anais Nin, b. 21 February 1903
Toni Morrison (b. February 18): “The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self… is the test of their power.”
18 Feb
“The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.”
~ Toni Morrison, b. 18 February 1931
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463683131/
Carl Bernstein (b. February 14): “Weird, stupid and coarse are becoming cultural norms…”
14 Feb
“For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norms, even our cultural ideal.”
~ Carl Bernstein, b. 14 February 1944
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463657066/
Norman Mailer (b. January 31): “Style is character.”
31 Jan
“A really good style comes only when a man has become as good as he can be. Style is character. A good style cannot come from a bad, undisciplined character… I think good style is a matter of rendering out of oneself all the cupidities, all the cripplings, all the vague desires. And then I think one has to develop one’s physical grace.”
~ Norman Mailer, b. 31 January 1923
pinterest.com/pin/39406565462367931/
Virginia Woolf (b. January 25): “A woman must have a room of her own to write.”
25 Jan
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
~ Virginia Woolf, b. 25 January 1882
Jay McInerney (b. January 13): “There aren’t many shy writers left.”
13 Jan
“There aren’t many shy writers left.”
~ Jay McInerney, b. 13 January 1955
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463448961/
Jack London (b. January 12): “You can’t wait for inspiration…”
12 Jan
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
~ Jack London, b. 12 January 1876
Isaac Asimov (b. January 2nd): “Science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
2 Jan
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
~ Isaac Asimov, b. 2 Jan 1920
Follow Alan on :
Sextile 