December 2009
“
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable it is nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive.
” —Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille
“Just as composers go to concerts and artists visit galleries, writers read. You will learn, in the most enjoyable way, more about style and language from reading good literature than you will ever acquire from workshops and how-to books.”
—JUDITH BARRINGTON
Three Simple 2010 Resolutions for Writers →
fuelyourwriting.com
Most of our promises are fleeting with no backing. Let us take this promise — “I promise to finish my novel” — as an example. If your novel is in the true development stage, where the author (you!) has written the title and possibly the first sentence of the epic tale, you many want to alter that resolution.
Here are three simple 2010 resolutions.
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
—Cyril Connolly
“Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.”
—Carol Burnett
“A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.”
— ~Edward P. Morgan
“You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
“I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.”
—Louisa May Alcott
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.”
—WILLIAM FAULKNER
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?”
—GEORGE ORWELL
