One’s writing career — the efforts, the time, the stories themselves, and the writer that culminates through all of that — should be seen as an investment. Pay in early, it yields bigger as time goes on. You will earn more as time goes on and as you become more capable — and as you… Continue reading Untitled
Category: quote
Untitled
(after savaging a JFCooper story, Mark Twain concludes with five further rules for writing:) In addition to these large rules, there are some little ones. These require that the author shall: 12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it. 13. Use the right word, not its second cousin. 14. Eschew… Continue reading Untitled
Untitled
People are talking about the Internet as a creative tool for writers. I say, “B.S. Stay away from that. Stop talking to people around the world and get your work done. Ray Bradbury
Untitled
Believe in yourself. Keep writing. Neil Gaiman
Untitled
For any of you who are thinking of writing, almost the most important thing is to find a rhythm that works for you and never alter that. I knew a novelist who could only write on Sundays, and he wrote many fine novels. Try and remember this: It ain’t about inspiration. It’s about going into… Continue reading Untitled
Untitled
I’ve been writing a very long time. Probably I started before most of you were born. And I believe this: Everything is about story. If any of you want to be writers, please try and believe me about story. If you have the story right for you, you have a chance. If you mess up… Continue reading Untitled
Untitled
One of the things I love to do when I work with young writers is to disabuse them of the notion that I know what I’m doing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m writing a script now, and as we are speaking, I am looking at my computer, tearing out my hair, thinking, well,… Continue reading Untitled
Untitled
Short stories are far from easy to pull off – but are profoundly satisfying for the reader when they succeed. It is wonderful – and commendable – to see what this prize has achieved, in only a few years already, in reminding us all of the joys of this powerful and intimate literary genre. Joanna… Continue reading Untitled
Untitled
The short story used to be the orphan of prose fiction – a bit unloved, a bit uncelebrated. But this year’s entries for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award demonstrate just how the form has grown up to be something spectacular and super-confident. The best and brightest of the new generation, as… Continue reading Untitled
Untitled
When one door closes, another door opens. But we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed one that we do not see the one which opened for us. Alexander Graham Bell