The Most Important Lesson in the Writing Trade

The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.

ROBERT HEINLEIN

There Is Such Thing As Too Much Revision

There is such thing as too much revision—I’ve seen things that were amazing in the 17th version get flattened out in the 23rd—but nothing is born perfect. Well, some things almost are, but they’re freaks.

REBECCA SOLNIT

Never Dumb Things Down

I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you’re writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have. That way, you’ll never dumb things down. You won’t have to explain things that don’t need explaining. You’ll assume an intimacy and a natural shorthand, which is good because readers are smart and don’t wish to be condescended to.

JEFFREY EUGENIDES

Don't Look Back Until You've Written An Entire Draft

Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in...the edit.

WILL SELF

Sneak Up On Your Material

Sneak up on your material. Don’t go crashing after it through the forest with a machete. Sit down, be quiet, let the material catch up with you.

CAROLYN SEE

The Smaller the Ball, the More Formidable the Literature

The smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature. There are superb books about golf, very good books about baseball, not many good books about football or soccer, very few good books about basketball and no good books at all about beach balls.

GEORGE PLIMPTON

The Fiction Writer Appeals Through the Senses

The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses, and the fiction writer begins where the human perception begins. He appeals through the senses, and you cannot appeal through the senses with abstractions.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR

A Title Is Like A Magnet

I think a title is like a magnet. It begins to draw these scraps of experience or conversation or memory to it. Eventually, it collects a book.

LOUISE ERDRICH

It's Such A Tricky Thing, Being A Screenwriter

It’s such a tricky thing, being a screenwriter, a strange combination of talents. You have to have the instincts to want to express yourself like any writer, but at the same time you have to have a very powerful collaborative instinct.

BO GOLDMAN

There Is No Cure for Writer's Block

There is no cure for writer's block. If it persists into the third day the writer must abandon all hope of authorship and go into the family business. Those who refuse this common sense alternative should identify the source of the block. When it is the result of fear the writer must complete the work and submit it even if humiliation and death are sure to follow. When it is the result of visceral disinterest, which sometimes emerges after agreeing to write something or other, it is better to own up frankly and abandon the work.

THOMAS POWERS