 20 years of Master Class to Masterpiece |
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CRAFT TIPS Part 2: Revision... and More You’ll see many of these quotes sprinkled throughout the site. (They may reflect topics from our previous/future workshop focus sessions; some concentrate on a single book or author.) Post your favorites in a handy place where they’ll inspire and nudge you along—keep you on track or help you discover a new one.
APPROACHING CHILDREN’S FICTION If I’m known forever as a children’s writer, I will never consider that “second best.” I don’t feel I need to write for adults before I’m a “serious” writer! — J.K. Rowling You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better. No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing. — E.B. White No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. — C.S. LewisWORDCRAFT Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell When I was twenty I was in love with words, a wordsmith...Now I like the words to disappear, like a transparent curtain. — Wallace Stegner Use action verbs to invigorate your writing. Rather than, “Make a revision in this sentence,” write, “Revise this sentence.” — Stephen Wilbers, Keys to Great Writing Adjectives are like a hammer. Used inexactly, they can give you a sore thumb instead of a job well done.— David Fryxell See through the character’s eyes. Hear through his ears. Feel through his skin. It isn’t “Glass beads rolled in the rumples of the kitchen linoleum.” It’s “He heard glass beads...” Use the character’s senses instead of the author’s. — James V. Smith, You Can Write a Novel Try to write description that contains verbal surprises. Seemingly unrelated verbal combinations—“frightful goodness,” “ferocious necklace,” “barnlike body”— can strike exactly the descriptive note you want. — Monica Wood, Description Examine your adverbs to make sure you aren’t forcing them to do the hard work of observation for you. Instead of telling us that the heroine works “tirelessly,” tells us about the calluses on her hands or her heavy walk. — Monica Wood, Description Jumbling a lot of images in once clause or sentences tends to blur them [into a] word soup. REVISION I can’t write five words but that I change seven. — Dorothy Parker Probably no book is born entire and uncrippled as it was conceived. — Virginia Woolf Writing has to be extremely tight and focused. Not every flashy fish can be thrown in. — Multiple award-winning short story author Gina Ochsner in Writer’s Digest interview (5/05) Too much decorative language is “like a woman wearing too much jewelry.” — Author and Writer’s Digest fiction columnist Nancy Kress Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream. — Mark Twain Every writer has set of “favorite” words, words that break out in his or her head like a bad case of hives. — Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life Verbs are the action words of the language and the most important. Turn to any passage on any page of a successful novel and notice the high percentage of verbs. — William Sloan If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out. — George Orwell The key lesson ...[is] that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish. — Thomas Wolfe My spirit quivered at the bloody execution. My soul recoiled before the carnage of so many lovely things cut out upon which my heart was set. — Thomas Wolfe I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse. — Henry James, following a request to cut three lines from his 5,000-word article If a scene or a character or a description isn’t working at the length you have it, cut it down until the best elements are all that’s left, the gravy reduced to a rich sauce in a skillet. — John Berendt The best advice I was ever given is to read your work aloud (no audience necessary) and listen—really listen. — Judy Blume By looking at the skeleton of the story, you are better able to distance yourself... Just reading the scenes over and over... you will get distracted by your own prose style, by all of your revisions, by the ideas in your head that may have never made it to paper. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes The early stages of writing and revising resemble first aid on a battlefield: you see a gaping wound (such as a cliched description) and you slap a Band-Aid on it (change a few words)... early drafts are part of the discovery process. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes Early drafts are like selecting the members of a sports team; final drafts are teaching them to play together as one cooperative unit. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes The best writing is rewriting. — E.B. WhiteHUMOR, HELP, INSPIRATION Everything I wrote [for seven years] was a failed experiment. Then it was like Edison with the light bulb—attempt number 3,499 worked. — Multiple award-winning short story author Gina Ochsner in May 2005 Writer’s Digest interview I might [attempt a story] four years, five years. Because in that time, I may have gained a tiny bit of wisdom, or learned something from somebody else, or studied somebody else’s novel, and then the light bulb turns on...” — Multiple award-winning short story author Gina Ochsner in May 2005 Writer’s Digest interview You don’t develop a style. You work and develop yourself; your style is an emanation of your own being. — Katherine Anne Potter Every writer I know has trouble writing. — Joseph Heller Mistakes are the portals of discovery. — James Joyce The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. — Agatha Christie I wrote The Outsiders because I wanted to read it. — S. E. Hinton The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time. — Mary Oliver, poet Respect your first draft! It’s your child, just a little uncoordinated and unkempt. Don’t throw that baby out with the bathwater. — Carolyn See, Making a Literary Life The woods would be very quiet if no birds sang there except those who sang best. You don’t have to suffer to be a poet [or write teen novels]. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. — John Ciardi The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without the work. — Emile Zola Good writing has to do with not counting drafts, not keeping track of how many times you’ve revised something. The only draft that counts is the final draft. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes However great a man’s natural talent may be, the art of writing cannot be learned all at once. There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. — Soprano Beverly Sills The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business. Writing is a marathon of the spirit. Don’t give up. — Stuart Cohen Writer’s block is a misnomer. What is called writer’s block is almost always ordinary fear. — Tom Wolfe The best way to get through [writer’s block] is to sit down and write about your writer’s block. This works like Drano. It will unclog you immediately. — Augusten Burroughs, interviewed in April 2005 Writer’s Digest When I am stuck on something, I force myself to write one simple declarative sentence that is the truest thing I know [about] it at the time. — Ernest Hemingway If you’re going to write about a frog, become that frog. Inhabit frogness. — Galway Kinnell Go for the jugular. If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy... Harness that power. — Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones Something far more profound than mere words beats at the heart of story. — Robert McKee, StoryBIBLIOGRAPHY Richard Cohen, Writer’s Mind:Crafting Fiction
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