Cartoon by MMRule
Naturally, I’m not referring to my wonderful spouse, who’s also my editor. But there are times when he steps into my office to ask a question that generates an idea and I quickly incorporate it into one of my chapters.
In fact, I just hit the period key ending the last sentence when Joe made one of his rare appearances, accompanied by a spoon. “Taste this,” he said. “Yummy,” I responded. Then we proceeded to discuss the sauce he had made for a pizza he will be baking for dinner. Now how am I going to incorporate that event in my plot?
In lieu of detailing other examples of the trials, tribulations and joys of being an author, I thought reading quotes from other writers who share my sentiments, would be more enlightening. Maybe one day, I’ll have a poignant quote printed among them.
Yummy…hmmm…While I give that some thought…Read on.
People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.
– Harlan Ellison
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow
I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
– Dorothy Parker
Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
– Joseph Conrad
No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.
– E. B. White
Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.
– Anne McCaffrey
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.
– Jane Yolen
All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary—it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
– Somerset Maugham
Fiction is about stuff that’s screwed up.
– Nancy Kress
Check M. M. Rule’s Blog for Articles and other Cartoons for Writers. http://blog.mmrule.com/category/articles/
