Quote: Open a Vein

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.
- Red Smith

Quote: Just Do It

The best writing advice I ever received came near-simultaneously from two different sources.

I was struggling through my first full-length work, finding it a very different and untameable animal from short fiction. Writing the book was like walking against a wind machine where life, other story ideas, and lack of polished expertise threw themselves against my every effort.

I bemoaned this fact to friend and colleague Susan McBride. Her answer was simple. "Just do it," she said. "Write straight through, stopping only long enough to jot notes on vital flashes of inspiration."

Sure it made sense, but it was too darn simplistic. And easy for her to say, I thought. She had a book series with Harper-Collins. But sometimes, the simplest of answers is the best.

Still feeling sorry for myself, I happened to pick up a copy of Stephen King's On Writing. His advice? "Just do it."

That's when the truth hit. For those of us who must write, the discipline to do so lies within that very drive. The manuscript that had sat in messy bits for fifteen months became a finished work within three, and the next novel was written in four.
- Lisa Logan

Found at http://nienkehinton.blogspot.com/2007/05/best-writing-advice-ever_25.html

Quote: Start Straight Away

Get the reader into the story straight away, and use crisp and unassuming language. Don't make the reader want to reach for the dictionary.
- Elliot Perlman

Quote: Live Writing

I often have written a hundred pages or more before there's a paragraph that's alive.
- Philip Roth

Quote: A Novel Tells the Truth

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
- G.K. Chesterton

I know it has been almost a month since my last post, and for that I apologize. My spontaneous haitus was not supposed to last this long, but ah me, such is the life of a student, right? My programming assignments have been long, a little tedius, and nothing short of infuriating. I haven't had a chance to add to the WIP since my last post, either, which is also a little frustrating.

So, things to look forward to once I really return: my review of Hood by Stephen Lawhead and possibly Paperback Writer by Stephen A Bly, more notes from my research journals; updates on the WIP (as I get to work on it); and, of course, more tips, hints, tricks, and information about writing, editing, marketing, and publishing.

Quote: Portrait of Himself

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.
- Samuel Butler