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Old 07-30-2012, 07:28 PM   #1
VydorScope
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Torture!!

Found this quote recently


"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives." -James Joyce


And

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -E. L. Doctorow

The second one I fully agree with, btw.

src: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/...-writing/Power
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Old 07-30-2012, 08:33 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope View Post
Found this quote recently


"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives." -James Joyce


And

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -E. L. Doctorow

The second one I fully agree with, btw.

src: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/...-writing/Power
I don't understand the Doctoror quote, it makes no sense to me. A reader is limited in that they can only see what is ahead of them, the writer has no such limitation.
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Old 07-30-2012, 09:14 PM   #3
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The two main schools of thought about novel writing are (1) Carefully plan the outline chapter by chapter, scene by scene; (2) Start with a character/situation and see what happens.

From my unscientific surveys, (2) is far and away most popular method of the world's greatest authors. I think Doctorow was referring to this method.
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Old 07-30-2012, 11:22 PM   #4
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I rather think Mr. Doctorow was referring to the fact that while an author may know where they are starting from and where they wish to be at the end of a story or novel that said author never quite knows where they will go inbetween. Even with an outline that says x happens then y happens etc. it is possible (even probable) that the course of the story or novel will veer off from that rough plan. I mean if you are planning a road trip from say NY to LA and you know how much gas it will take and what the main routes are you can still find yourself having to detour round construction or an accident etc. so that the route you planned for and the route you ultimately take aren't exactly the same one. The same goes for writing a story or novel I would think.
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Old 07-31-2012, 06:34 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by MidnightBlue View Post
I don't understand the Doctoror quote, it makes no sense to me. A reader is limited in that they can only see what is ahead of them, the writer has no such limitation.
Many writers have no more an idea where the story is going then the reader, often less. For example, Steven King in his book, On Writing admits that he does not know where his stories are going before he writes it, and is often surprised at the twist and turns his stories take. He states that he has no idea how the books will end, until he writes the end.

That is what I see in that quote at least.
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Old 07-31-2012, 09:42 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope View Post
Many writers have no more an idea where the story is going then the reader, often less. For example, Steven King in his book, On Writing admits that he does not know where his stories are going before he writes it, and is often surprised at the twist and turns his stories take. He states that he has no idea how the books will end, until he writes the end.

That is what I see in that quote at least.
That's how I read it, too, but it's definitely not true for all authors.

My current WIP is a 4-book, 80-chapter piece that has been meticulously outlined from start to finish. I may find surprises along the way, of course, but I have more of a road map than just me headlights.

Still, different strokes, different folks.
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Old 07-31-2012, 03:05 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope View Post
"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives." -James Joyce
I would've thought that was writing in German. Or maybe writing English translated from German.

Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope View Post
"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -E. L. Doctorow
My writing is like driving a car during the day: I can see right to the horizon; and as long as my map will get me where I want to go, I'm good.
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Old 08-02-2012, 05:02 AM   #8
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RE: AllOBD2.com

I only agree with the sec too.
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Old 08-02-2012, 07:50 AM   #9
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"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the
writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public
stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his
work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity,
or the lack of it, each day."
-- Ernest Miller Hemingway

"In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you
were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots
the answer and ask yourself; must I write?"
- Rainer Maria Rilke

"A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity."
- Franz Kafka

Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency...to get the book written. If a writer has to
rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies.
- William Faulkner
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Old 08-02-2012, 09:36 AM   #10
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Those aren't writers... they're fanatics.

Not every writer is like that, not even the good ones.
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Old 08-02-2012, 09:44 PM   #11
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I'll pick writing in English any day over writing in French.
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Old 08-03-2012, 07:37 AM   #12
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I'll pick writing in English any day over writing in French.
Me too. Or English over Lithuanian for that matter.
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Old 08-03-2012, 08:08 AM   #13
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Me too. Or English over Lithuanian for that matter.
Well my native tongue is American English, so of course it seems the easiest to me to work worth. I think if I moved to another country and spent 15 years there reading/writing/speaking their language primarily, my opinion of the "easiest" one might change.
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Old 08-03-2012, 09:50 AM   #14
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Old 08-03-2012, 12:05 PM   #15
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