Writing/Writer Quotes

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I heard about this guy!

Didn't he have something to do with a piano company?

Perhaps you are thinking of a STEINWAY.

What's a STEINWAY?

A full one, about 5 pounds.

Ba dum bum!

[gmw]

With thanks to @AnemicOak for posting the source link on another thread, I present the following quote:

And I learned a lot about false starts in writing. I mean that in a really serious way. His [Tolkien’s] false starts. You learn that the great works have disastrous botched chapters, that the great writers recognise that they didn’t work. So I was looking at drafts of The Lord of the Rings and rough starts for The Silmarillion and came to realise they don’t spring full-blown, utterly, completely formed in brilliance. They get there with writing and rewriting and drudgery and mistakes, and eventually if you put in the hours and the patience, something good might happen. That was a very, very early lesson for me, looking at the Tolkien materials. That it’s not instantly magnificent. That it’s laboriously so, but it gets there. That was a huge, huge, still important lesson.

-- Guy Gavriel Kay (2014 interview with The Guardian)

[gmw]

I realized that a writer's business is setting fire to Piggy Sneed - and trying to save him - over and over again; forever.

-- John Irving, short story "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed" (1982), from the collection Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (1993).

That one sentence, and the short story that precedes it, tells you a lot about John Irving's writing. It also makes you wonder about what it is we've gotten ourselves into when we start writing fiction. I commented in another thread about the idea that we seem to bang our heads (or our protagonist's heads - is there a difference?) against a brick wall because it feels good when you stop. If anyone has a more cheerful analysis/quote I'd be pleased to hear it about now.

[orlok]

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time - or the tools - to write. Simple as that."

Stephen King

[gmw]

I am strongly of opinion that an author had far better not read any reviews of his books: the unfavourable ones are almost certain to make him cross, and the favourable ones conceited; and neither of these results is desirable.

-- Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Sylvie and Bruno Concluded 1889


I can't say that I actually agree with this - how else is an author, especially a just starting self-published author, going to assess their success as a writer (the ability to say what they intended to say) than by reading reviews? But I still find it an interesting comment. The trick, I would suggest, is to be able to read reviews without becoming cross or conceited. One hopes to learn from them: "yes, I got that right" or "no, everyone has missed what I was trying to say", or perhaps "okay, so some people got it, but many didn't, so maybe I can do better next time."

Anyway, Carroll goes on to admit that criticism of his work still reached him "from private sources". So if you can't avoid them, surely it's better to face them directly.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by gmw

I am strongly of opinion that an author had far better not read any reviews of his books: the unfavourable ones are almost certain to make him cross, and the favourable ones conceited; and neither of these results is desirable.

-- Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Sylvie and Bruno Concluded 1889


I can't say that I actually agree with this - how else is an author, especially a just starting self-published author, going to assess their success as a writer (the ability to say what they intended to say) than by reading reviews? But I still find it an interesting comment. The trick, I would suggest, is to be able to read reviews without becoming cross or conceited. One hopes to learn from them: "yes, I got that right" or "no, everyone has missed what I was trying to say", or perhaps "okay, so some people got it, but many didn't, so maybe I can do better next time."

Anyway, Carroll goes on to admit that criticism of his work still reached him "from private sources". So if you can't avoid them, surely it's better to face them directly.

I would say it is ok to read the reviews, but please sit on your hands so as not to respond to the negative reviews. It can make the author look like a ________. Fill in with words of your choice from female dog to where fecal matter comes out of.
It is a big turn off to see an author call the reviewer names or tell the reviewer they are wrong and don't know what they are talking about.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I would say it is ok to read the reviews, but please sit on your hands so as not to respond to the negative reviews. It can make the author look like a ________. Fill in with words of your choice from female dog to where fecal matter comes out of.
It is a big turn off to see an author call the reviewer names or tell the reviewer they are wrong and don't know what they are talking about.

I find the best way to fight the urge to respond to reviews is to actually write whatever it is I want to say - often at great length - but simply don't send it. This has the added advantage of feeling like I've had the last word.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by gmw

I find the best way to fight the urge to respond to reviews is to actually write whatever it is I want to say - often at great length - but simply don't send it. This has the added advantage of feeling like I've had the last word.

That works too.

[astrangerhere]

My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember: writers are always selling somebody out.

From the Preface to Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

[orlok]

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
--Douglas Adams

[orlok]

"If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor"
-- Edgar Rice Burroughs

[orlok]

"I'm so happy I made someone cry today. Don't worry - I'm a writer. It's when they make me cry that it's a problem."
-- Tina Smith

[ApK]

Originally Posted by orlok

"If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor"
-- Edgar Rice Burroughs

This reminds me of a quote I've heard attributed to Bob Dylan, something like "The secret to writing dozens of hit songs is to write thousands of songs."

I guess both boil down to "practice your craft."

[orlok]

Originally Posted by ApK

This reminds me of a quote I've heard attributed to Bob Dylan, something like "The secret to writing dozens of hit songs is to write thousands of songs."

I guess both boil down to "practice your craft."

Absolutely.

[gmw]

Not sure about the Dylan reference, but I think the Edgar Rice Burroughs quote is also acknowledging the luck-factor. Write enough and not only will you get better (we hope) but you'll also get more tickets in the lottery called public-appeal. Or: Luck happens to those who put themselves in its way.