Archive for the 'Quotes' Category

Last year I bought a copy of the Garry Disher book called Writing Fiction: an introduction to the craft. It was the required text for the fiction writing unit in my Master of Arts course.
As I read the first chapter I underlined the following: ‘new writers believe that the best writing grows out of powerful [...]

It takes character

To write a short story or novel it takes character. The character of the writer, that is. If the writer has the characteristics of discipline, persistence, patience and a good idea, the story will happen.
But the story also has to have characters. Novels have plenty of them; short stories can get [...]

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
W. Somerset Maugham
English dramatist & novelist (1874 - 1965)

That was a somewhat cynical view of the craft of writing. Sometimes I feel like they are not too far off the mark.
Despite that, we can but try to work out what [...]

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

Good advice.
As writers we need to be writing on a regular basis. I could almost guarantee that Tiger [...]

‘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 [...]