06-12-2017, 06:37 AM | #91 | ||
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Ba dum bum! Last edited by ApK; 06-12-2017 at 06:39 AM. |
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09-07-2017, 04:55 AM | #92 |
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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) |
11-28-2017, 01:41 AM | #93 |
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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. |
12-14-2017, 04:51 AM | #94 |
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"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time - or the tools - to write. Simple as that."
Stephen King |
12-24-2017, 02:28 AM | #95 |
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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. |
12-27-2017, 09:05 PM | #96 | |
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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. |
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12-28-2017, 02:47 PM | #97 | |
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12-28-2017, 06:16 PM | #98 |
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01-02-2018, 12:29 PM | #99 | |
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03-09-2018, 05:35 PM | #100 |
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"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
--Douglas Adams |
03-11-2018, 02:49 PM | #101 |
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"If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor"
-- Edgar Rice Burroughs |
03-12-2018, 02:30 PM | #102 |
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"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 |
03-12-2018, 02:56 PM | #103 | |
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I guess both boil down to "practice your craft." |
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03-12-2018, 06:39 PM | #104 |
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03-12-2018, 08:12 PM | #105 |
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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.
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