Aspiring to Write

amandaonwriting:

Excellent advice for anyone who wants to write a novel. Always have a plan.

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 28 April

Happy Birthday, Harper Lee, born 28 April 1926

Five Quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird

1. Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.
2. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.
3. Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.
4. Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
5. You really never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Seven Quotes: On Reading & Writing

1. More than a simple matter of putting down words, writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people who write, but I think they’re quite different from people who must write.
2. There’s no substitute for the love of language, for the beauty of an English sentence. There’s no substitute for struggling, if a struggle is needed, to make an English sentence as beautiful as it should be.
3. I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career, that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.
4. Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself…It’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.
5. It was like being hit over the head and knocked cold. I didn’t expect the book to sell in the first place. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of reviewers but at the same time I sort of hoped that maybe someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I’d expected.
6. Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it.
7. You must come to terms with yourself about your writing. You must not write ‘for’ something; you must not write with definite hopes of reward.

Lee is an American author known for her 1961 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite it being her only published book, it led to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. Lee has received numerous honorary degrees. She is also well-known for assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 28 April

Happy Birthday, Terry Pratchett, born 28 April 1948

12 Quotes On Writing

1. Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.
2. You can’t build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief. And you need to let people know that when a lot of frightened people are running around with edged weaponry, there are deaths. Stupid deaths, usually. I’m not writing ‘The A-Team’ - if there’s a fight going on, people will get hurt. Not letting this happen would be a betrayal.
3. Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.
4. Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.
5. I have to write because if I don’t get something down then after a while I feel it’s going to bang the side of my head off.
6. You can’t die with an unfinished book.
7. I’ve always felt that what I have going for me is not my imagination, because everyone has an imagination. What I have is a relentlessly controlled imagination. What looks like wild invention is actually quite carefully calculated.
8. No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.
9. In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a character; there was nothing particularly new about this - death has featured in art and literature since medieval times, and for centuries we have had a fascination with the Grim Reaper.
10. Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.
11. I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
12. They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

And one more on life: I believe it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer.

Pratchett is an English author of fantasy novels who was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010. He is best known for the Discworld series. Pratchett has sold more than 70 million books in 37 languages. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. Pratchett announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2007.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

(via ancientxdelirium)

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 20 April

Happy Birthday, Sebastian Faulks, born 20 April 1953

Interviewer: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Do you agree with E.L. Doctorow, or do you begin a novel with a shape of the whole?
Sebastian Faulks: It’s a nice image, but not my experience. I have an AA gazetteer, a sat nav, GPS and a route map. I wouldn’t dream of starting without. 

Sebastian Faulks: Seven Quotes On Writing

1. The words themselves are the beginning and end. Even when the style is apparently plain it is so for a reason. And within plainness there a hundred choices for each sentence in rhtyhm and syntax and of course within each word. Think of Hemingway.
2. Ideally, I start with the theme and setting, then a rough narrative arc including half a dozen big moments which are like the supports in a river over which the bridge spans; then the people are given to you because they are the ones capable of acting out what is required of the action to exemplify the theme.
3. In the period of composition you have to be exceptionally open. Anything might feed in. The knack is knowing the difference between a disposable thought and a robust idea. You have to live in a rather vulnerable, open state, while at the same time making hard decisions. You are a like a valve that switches between active and passive all the time. This is what takes it out of you a bit.
4. Almost everything I know about structure I learned from classical music. Most of what I know about narrative I took from cinema. I also think of oil painting quite a lot, particularly when I am trying to add layers, to thicken the texture.
5. When I am writing a book I work from ten till six every day in a small office near my house. I never write less than a thousand words a day. Writers Block is God’s way of telling you to shut up. More people should have it…
6. Write about what you DON’T know. Research, invent. Write about people of other ages, sexes, nationalities and periods in history. Then find a book you think is similar to yours. Write to the author care of the publisher and find out who their agent is. Good luck.
7. Real emotion comes from inside the reader. You are unaware that the author has been trying to make you feel something; in fact, you wonder whether the author is really aware of how sad, funny or inspiring this passage is. Artificial is when you feel your arm being twisted. Too many adverbs is a bad sign.

Faulks is a British novelist, journalist, and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels including The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Gray. He has also written a James Bond sequel, Devil May Care. He is a team captain on BBC Radio 4 literary quiz The Write Stuff.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

searchingforknowledge:

amandaonwriting:

The 7 habits of highly effective writers

Have you ever wondered why some people write easily and fluently, while others struggle and strain as if trying to squeeze a 185-lb body into a size six pair of jeans? In 30 years at this trade, I’ve noticed that effective writers tend to share seven traits. So, with apologies to Stephen Covey, here is my list.

Effective writers … 

1) Separate the writing and the editing processes. When they write, they write, not worrying about the quality of their work. Writer/director Cecil Castellucci says: ‘The best flowers are fertilized by crap.’ Remember this and give yourself permission to write a crummy first draft.
Editing is a job for later. That’s when you’ll have plenty of time to rearrange big chunks of text, monkey around with sentence structure, obsess over word choice and fix punctuation.

2) Focus on the interesting. Effective writers (and speakers) always tell lots of stories. If they have to communicate something ‘theoretical’, they illustrate it with real life examples and anecdotes. They know that human beings don’t just crave food—they are also starved for stories.

3) Tap into the power of metaphor. As metaphor expert Anne Miller likes to say, ‘metaphors lead to instant understanding’. There are at least three metaphors in this article (can you find them all?)

4) Do adequate research. There is nothing more painful than trying to write when you have nothing to say. Effective writers understand that good research is all about asking interesting questions—of themselves, of the books, Web sites and reports they read and of anyone they interview. And this needs to be completed before any writing can begin.

5) Learn from the writing of others. Effective writers understand that they are lifelong apprentices. They learn by reading—constantly. Note: this is not just passive, flip- through-a-thriller-while-sitting-on-the-pool- deck kind of reading. This is active sit-up-and-pay-attention-to-technique dissection—similar to what a scientist would do in a lab. You won’t want to read this closely all the time, of course (it’s work—although fun work, to my mind). But effective writers do some of this every week.

6) Write in small bursts. Creative work doesn’t require oodles of time. That first draft you need to write? It’s best done in dribs and drabs, a little bit at a time. Instead of procrastinating, effective writers persuade themselves to write a little each day, no matter how frazzled and frantic they feel. (Editing, on the other hand, usually needs space, time and quiet.) 

7) Read their work out loud. Language isn’t just meaning—it’s also music. The most effective writers can often be found sitting by the computer keyboards, madly whispering to the screen, repeating their words back to themselves. Yes, it looks kooky and co-workers may become alarmed. But effective writers don’t care. They do it because it works.

By Daphne Gray-Grant

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a free weekly newsletter on her Web site the Publication Coach. This story first appeared on PR Daily in August 2011.

From Writers Write

*goes to incorporate some of these into my habits.

(via readbeforeyouwrite)

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 15 April

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey Archer, born 15 April 1940

Jeffrey Archer’s top 10 writing tips

1. Make time “Decide when you’re going to write. Don’t be casual and only do it as and when it suits you. Don’t think you can write a novel after you’ve done a hard day’s work, it’s insulting to those professional novelists who spend their time doing nothing else.”
2. Be disciplined “For example, I write from 6-8am, 10-12am, 2-4pm, 6-8pm. I keep that routine up for 40-50 days and handwrite every word. I then take a break and go back to it again a month later.”
3. Write what you know “Don’t do vampires, wizards or ghosts because they’re in fashion. Jane Austen wrote about family life in a small village and gave us six of the greatest novels ever written.”
4. Get some fresh air “I go for two long walks between sessions, for two reasons, physical and mental. The plot will buzz around in your mind while you are walking, continually churning over, which it can’t be while you’re actually writing.”
5. Do several drafts “Do not imagine that the first draft of your book is the one that will be published. My latest novel, The Sins of the Father, was 14 drafts and took approximately 1000 hours.”
6. Be flexible “If you think of something better half-way through the writing process, don’t be frightened to go back and incorporate it or even change the story completely.”
7. Seek opinions from professionals “When you want an opinion on what you consider the finished script, seek it from a professional editor, an agent or someone you don’t know, through a third party. Do not seek an opinion from your wife, husband, partner, mistress or close friend. They will lie.”
8. Read the greats “There is no substitute for reading great novelists, and instead of just enjoying their craft, think carefully about how they’ve achieved it? Do they spend pages on description, do they move the story on quickly, how do they make you turn the page? It’s all there in front of you if you look carefully, so at least when you try to do it, you have analysed how successful authors have managed it in the past.”
9. Stay fit “If the body is a physical wreck – too much drinking, smoking, late nights – how can you expect the written word to be anything less than drunken, useless and tired?”
10. Don’t give up ”My first novel, Not a Penny, Not a Penny Less, was turned down by 14 publishers, ended up with an advance of £3,000 and on first printing took a year to sell 3,000 copies. It is still extremely rare for a first book to be a best-seller.”

Archer is an English author and former politician whose books have sold 250 million copies worldwide. His books include Kane and Abel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, Shall We Tell the President?, and most recently the Clifton Chronicles.

By Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

abandonedography:

When the Germans were invading Denmark in world war II, they took over a mans farm. This man moved into the deep forrest and built a new home out of stone and surrounded it with a moat. This place is in Jylland, Denmark.

(by Lone)

(via darkface)

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 10 April

Happy Birthday, Anne Lamott, born 10 April 1954

10 Anne Lamott Quotes On Writing

1. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.
2. You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.
3. We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. The writer’s job is to turn the unspeakable into words - not just into any words, but if we can, into rhythm and blues.
4. For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.
5. Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.
6. Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.
7. I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good at it.
8. You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won’t really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we’ll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.
9. Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
10. Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?

Lamott is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. She is also a political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Her non-fiction works are mostly autobiographical and cover alcoholism, single motherhood, depression, and Christianity. She is most famous for Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write