Writer and Writing Quotation of the Day
Pains of Birth
"When a woman is speaking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes."
- Victor Hugo
Unlike babies, writers must learn to see before they are ready for birth. That is the reason they spend so much time crying about critics, agents, rejection, writer's block, "conspirac[ies] against their talent," having to work so damn hard, and on-and-on. They are seeing and feeling pains of birth.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Victor Hugo
Unlike babies, writers must learn to see before they are ready for birth. That is the reason they spend so much time crying about critics, agents, rejection, writer's block, "conspirac[ies] against their talent," having to work so damn hard, and on-and-on. They are seeing and feeling pains of birth.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Just the Lie
"Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer."
- G. C. Lichtenberg (1742-99)
Ah, the good old days: So innocent. Today, it's three lies for one witty turn, and the witty turn is optional.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- G. C. Lichtenberg (1742-99)
Ah, the good old days: So innocent. Today, it's three lies for one witty turn, and the witty turn is optional.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Writing Straight Out
Forcing sentences and paragraphs makes writing hard work. Easy writing is easy work. Robert Rankin says it well: Writing is right, comfortable, and fits when "it comes straight out."
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Writer's Bite
What? Idiotic to care about the writer? Even though they're damn hard to catch, I want to see the spider that bites me.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Focus
"Words are a lens to focus one's mind. "
- Ayn Rand
Focus on words, see the sentence,
Focus on sentences; see the paragraph,
Focus on paragraphs, miss the story,
Focus small; write big.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Focus on words, see the sentence,
Focus on sentences; see the paragraph,
Focus on paragraphs, miss the story,
Focus small; write big.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Day is Done
"To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all."
- Lord Byron
Writers cannot withdraw themselves from their writings. It doesn't work. Sure we might read a story in which the characters, action, and dialog captivate us for three hundred pages or more, but then we are done. Whether in genre, voice, grammar, punctuation, or style, the writer is there in his story, and then there's the cover. Go to any bookstore and look at the bestsellers. Most titles are small compared to the names of their authors.
Today, Lord Byron's quotation is long out of date; it reads like he wrote it when the earth was still flat. Byron was a poet and, in his defense, readers seek themselves in poetry instead of the poet. In books they seek the story, and that is where they always find the writer. Poets withdraw and writers advance.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Lord Byron
Writers cannot withdraw themselves from their writings. It doesn't work. Sure we might read a story in which the characters, action, and dialog captivate us for three hundred pages or more, but then we are done. Whether in genre, voice, grammar, punctuation, or style, the writer is there in his story, and then there's the cover. Go to any bookstore and look at the bestsellers. Most titles are small compared to the names of their authors.
Today, Lord Byron's quotation is long out of date; it reads like he wrote it when the earth was still flat. Byron was a poet and, in his defense, readers seek themselves in poetry instead of the poet. In books they seek the story, and that is where they always find the writer. Poets withdraw and writers advance.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Years Yet to Live
"For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word."
- Catherine Drinker Bowen
For your dead writer, nothing is more discouraging than the realization he has years yet to live.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Catherine Drinker Bowen
For your dead writer, nothing is more discouraging than the realization he has years yet to live.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Victory for Life
"Every word written is a victory against death."
- Michel Butor
Every book written is a victory for life.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Michel Butor
Every book written is a victory for life.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Live with That
"Life cannot defeat a writer who is in love with writing; for life itself is a writer's love until death."
- Edna Ferber
Even though I believe writing will be my love until death, I wonder. If life cannot defeat a writer, why is it beating the hell out of me? Apparently, I have writing to thank for my survival; I can live with that.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Edna Ferber
Even though I believe writing will be my love until death, I wonder. If life cannot defeat a writer, why is it beating the hell out of me? Apparently, I have writing to thank for my survival; I can live with that.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Familiar to Us
"If a reporter doesn't like the person he's writing about, it shows up in his article."
- Willie Stargell
Novelists draw from such a large group of unlikable acquaintances that they never use just one in their writings. Instead, they combine the worst of each into a single character and call the monster, Antagonist. There's no wonder why such characters seem so real to us. Most are.
© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
