nevver: Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there. Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing. If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
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nevver:

Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck

  1. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
  2. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
  3. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
  4. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
  5. Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.
  6. If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

Source: brainpickings.org

Luc Sante on the Benefits of Self-Editing

Invaluable.

Neil Gaiman: Reposted as something that can be reblogged. ON WRITER'S BLOCK.

neil-gaiman:

I’ve seem to be hitting writer’s block far too often now. My grade in my creative writing class is suffering because i don’t turn in anything because i’m never really satisfied with anything i do. all my good ideas seem to turn into bad ones once i write it down. How do you get pass writers…

Source: neil-gaiman

Take one (1) unformed character, be they protagonist, antagonist, comic relief, or BFF.

- Give them something to want.
- Give them something to hide.
- Give them something to fear.
- Give them something to obsess over.
- Then hurt them.

Cat Valente, Thoughts on Writing Pt 3, at Charles Stross’s blog
austinkleon: Billy Wilder, 1960 Wilder’s 10 screenwriting tips: Grab ‘em by the throat and never let go. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act. Tip from Ernst Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever. The audience is fickle. Know where you’re going. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they are seeing. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie. The 3rd act must build, build, build in tempo until the last event, and then… …that’s it. Don’t hang around. (Tips via Gwenda.)
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austinkleon:

Billy Wilder, 1960

Wilder’s 10 screenwriting tips:

  1. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let go.
  2. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
  3. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
  4. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
  5. Tip from Ernst Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
  6. The audience is fickle. Know where you’re going.
  7. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they are seeing.
  8. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
  9. The 3rd act must build, build, build in tempo until the last event, and then…
  10. …that’s it. Don’t hang around.

(Tips via Gwenda.)

Source: images.google.com

Writing Tips from Henry Miller, Elmore Leonard, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman & George Orwell [OpenCulture]

youwouldcrytoo: Letter in a Bottle / Terrain
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youwouldcrytoo:

Letter in a Bottle / Terrain

(via murmurandshout)

Source: youwouldcrytoo

ruinawish: ‘Coppola plots out the intensity of the scene in his notebook.’
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ruinawish:

‘Coppola plots out the intensity of the scene in his notebook.’

(via supervillain)

Source: ruinawish

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Source: yourmomfanclub

When I fall in love with a novel that I haven’t written, one of the reasons I fall in love with it is exactly that I couldn’t have written it. If I could have, I guess I would have. Instead, I’m so thrilled and even grateful to read a story I wouldn’t have told, and therefore could never have encountered if there hadn’t been another writer there to write it with that person’s unique vision and sensibility.
Kate Elliott, Fiction as Inspiration: “It’s like getting a crush on a book.”

Source: kateelliott.com