Friday, June 21, 2013

Good Words from Dead People...and a GIVEAWAY!!!




As we've visited with some guest posters this week and received some great tips. Don't forget to stop by the posts and comment and enter for the giveaways as we'll be drawing at the end of today.  Today I thought it might be fun to end with some advice from beloved authors of the past. They may be dead people, but their works have outlived them. 

TRUMAN CAPOTE: To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed.
Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.

HENRY MILLER: Work on one thing at a time until finished. 

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD: Nothing any good isn't hard.

JOHN STEINBECK: Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page a day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

E.B. WHITE: Writing is not an exercise in excision, it's a journey into sound.


Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.

ANTON CHEKHOV: My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

HERMAN MELVILLE: To produce a mighty book, you must start with a mighty theme.

ROBERT FROST: No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

WILLIAM FAULKNER: Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but its the only way you can do anything really good.

Don't be a writer. Be writing.

JACK LONDON: You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.

VIRGINIA WOOLF: If you don't tell the truth about yourself, you can't tell it about other people.


Is there any writing advice here that spoke to your heart? Or is there another piece of advice that has been passed on to you that you have taken to heart and remembered? 

GIVEAWAY: SHARE WRITING ADVICE IN THE ARCHIVES AND WE'LL ENTER YOU FOR A COPY OF UNDENIABLY YOURS BY BECKY WADE. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. 










8 comments:

karenk said...

a wonderful posting...thanks for the chance to read becky's masterpiece, too.

karenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com

Unknown said...

As someone who feels like her to-do list is mountainous this weekend, I especially appreciated this one: Work on one thing at a time until finished.

:)

Beth K. Vogt said...

I love quotes -- love 'em, love' em, love' em.
And writing quotes -- oh, yeah! They're great too!
I heard Chip MacGregor ask once: "Does my writing change people?"
That's a question I keep posted nearby my computer.
I also often quote Rachel Hauck: "Keep asking 'Why?'."
And then I love this My Book Therapy refrain from Susie May Warren: "God heals the Lie and the hero heals the Wound."

Thanks for a great post!

Susan Anne Mason said...

Oh, Beth, Love that quote from Susie. I must frame it! Btw, I just started your book "Wish You Were Here" and am enjoying it a lot!

Thanks for the inspiration today ladies.

Don't enter me in the draw as I just finished Becky's fabulous book. It is going on my list as one of my MOST favorite books ever!! Love it.

Cheers,
Sue

Jeanne Takenaka said...

Loved these quotes today! One of the quotes in the post stopped me. Don't be a writer. Be writing. And with that, I'll take advantage of these next few hours I have sans kids and "be writing." :)

Jill Weatherholt said...

I am a quote queen ~ love them! Henry Miller's quote resonates as I have a tendency to work on several things at once which is not always the best way to get things accomplished. Don't enter me, I have Becky's book. Great post!

Sherrinda Ketchersid said...

I love quotes! LOVE them. There is something about them that is so direct and speaks to the heart in a special way.

And may I just say I am jealous of those who get a chance to get their hands on Becky's book! :)

Susan J. Reinhardt said...

Excellent quotes! I wonder who will be quoted 20 or 30 years from now.