Writer and Writing Quotation of the Day
Seat of Your Feet
"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair."
- Mary Heaton Vorse
Writing quotations reveal writers. While most writers understand and share certain truths about writing--like the need to write every day--some come up with clever little thoughts that I do not share. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair? That's funny, but it's also irrelevant. I write on my feet.
My son built a stand-up desk for me after I complained that chair writing was taking my strength. With muscles, it's use them or lose them and, after only four years of writing every day, sitting for hours in front of a keyboard, out of the elements, indoors, warm, soft, and sedate, I discovered chair writing is unhealthy writing.
Maybe it would be different if I could still run. Between writing, I would go out, get my legs working, arms pumping, lungs gasping, and blood gushing. That would be something! Then I could safely sit for hours and write. I could laugh out loud at Mary Heaton Vorse's little quotation. As it is, I adapted her words to my situation.
The art of writing, then, is the art of applying the seat of the feet to the head of the floor.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Mary Heaton Vorse
Writing quotations reveal writers. While most writers understand and share certain truths about writing--like the need to write every day--some come up with clever little thoughts that I do not share. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair? That's funny, but it's also irrelevant. I write on my feet.
My son built a stand-up desk for me after I complained that chair writing was taking my strength. With muscles, it's use them or lose them and, after only four years of writing every day, sitting for hours in front of a keyboard, out of the elements, indoors, warm, soft, and sedate, I discovered chair writing is unhealthy writing.
Maybe it would be different if I could still run. Between writing, I would go out, get my legs working, arms pumping, lungs gasping, and blood gushing. That would be something! Then I could safely sit for hours and write. I could laugh out loud at Mary Heaton Vorse's little quotation. As it is, I adapted her words to my situation.
The art of writing, then, is the art of applying the seat of the feet to the head of the floor.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Enough Rope to Hang
"I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope."
- Stanley Elkin
Instead of the end of their ropes, write about characters with enough rope to hang themselves. It raises the stakes, ups the tension, tingles the spine, and turns the page.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Stanley Elkin
Instead of the end of their ropes, write about characters with enough rope to hang themselves. It raises the stakes, ups the tension, tingles the spine, and turns the page.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
First is The Heart
"The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first."
- Pascal
The first thing one settles in writing a book is his heart.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Pascal
The first thing one settles in writing a book is his heart.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Today's Writers
"The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties."
- W. Somerset Maugham
The trouble with today's writers is they're the fallout of the sixties.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- W. Somerset Maugham
The trouble with today's writers is they're the fallout of the sixties.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Writer's Cramp and Block
"The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block."
- Inigo de Leon
It's simple: What the keyboard did for writer's cramp, writing does for writer's block.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Inigo de Leon
It's simple: What the keyboard did for writer's cramp, writing does for writer's block.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Prices to Pay
"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist, you are learning your craft- then you can add all the genius you like." - Phyllis Whitney
Rejection, disappointment, and discouragement are small prices to pay when you're pursuing a passion.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Rejection, disappointment, and discouragement are small prices to pay when you're pursuing a passion.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
First Loves
"Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss."
- Charles Dickens
Goldilocks would have been my first love, if it wasn't for those damn bears.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- Charles Dickens
Goldilocks would have been my first love, if it wasn't for those damn bears.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
Afford Poverty
"As a younger man I wrote for eight years without ever earning a nickel which is a long apprenticeship, but in that time I learned a lot about my trade."
- James Michener
No longer young, in my fifth year of writing, learning the trade, and earning just above a nickel, I advise aspiring writers to start young -- while they can afford poverty.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
- James Michener
No longer young, in my fifth year of writing, learning the trade, and earning just above a nickel, I advise aspiring writers to start young -- while they can afford poverty.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
A Reason
- La Bruyere
Life is not a genre for those who write. It's a reason.
© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved
All That You Want
"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read more than you write, learn more than you know, then write all that you want.
