One writes because one has a burning desire to objectify what it is indispensable to one’s happiness to express. A man is a writer if all his words are strung in definite sentence sounds. …baseball is like writing. You can never tell with either how it will go. Writing is an undertaking for the modest.Continue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author Marianne Moore”
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Follow Heinlein’s Rules to Land Big Book Deal
Robert Heinlein
Great Writing Quotes by Author James Baldwin
One writes out of one thing only – one’s own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art. Talent isContinue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author James Baldwin”
Play it smart: Don’t use 12 a.m./12 p.m.
Quick, is 12 a.m. noon or midnight? What about 12 p.m., is that midnight or noon? Don’t know the answer? Don’t feel stupid, most readers won’t either. And that’s a good reason to not use either term. Doing so is akin to including words from a foreign language that your readers wouldn’t know. Instead, useContinue reading “Play it smart: Don’t use 12 a.m./12 p.m.”
Great Writing Quotes by Author Blaise Pascal
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first. I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless. There are some who speak well and write badly. For the placeContinue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author Blaise Pascal”
Great Writing Quotes by Author Marla Frazee
The more personal and heartfelt the story is for the author and/or illustrator of the book, the more universal the emotion that can be gleaned from it. Picture books are an emotional medium. They need to make us feel something. Every word, every character in a picture book must count. What I had to doContinue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author Marla Frazee”
Five Rules for Spelling Possessive Nouns
Most writers know that an “apostrophe s” is needed to show possession or ownership. Where that apostrophe goes, however, changes depending on whether the word is singular or plural and if it ends in s or not. If the noun is singular and does not end in s, place the apostrophe between the word’s last letter and the apostropheContinue reading “Five Rules for Spelling Possessive Nouns”
How to Come Up with Characters’ Names
One of the most important decisions you’ll make as a storyteller is the names if your characters. If the names don’t ring right with readers, it can wear on them despite that the rest of your story is exceptional. Consider that the primary male character in a romance novel typically has a very strong, masculine name,Continue reading “How to Come Up with Characters’ Names”
Constructing Your Story’s Main Character
Typically a story is about a single character who overcomes some problem. This player in your story is called the main character. Common examples are Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” John in James Baldwin’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” and Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote.” Main characters usually are the hero of the story. The tale often isContinue reading “Constructing Your Story’s Main Character”
Great Writing Quotes by Author Ursula K. Le Guin
A story rises from the springs of creation, from the pure will to be; it tells itself; I takes its own course, finds its own way, its own words; and the writer’s job is to be its medium. Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggressionContinue reading “Great Writing Quotes by Author Ursula K. Le Guin”