writing

I’ve been wondering about chapter lengths. In my current WIP, I’ve let the scenes and story dictate the length of the chapters, and consequently, some are rather long, and some are very short. The inconsistency hasn’t gone unnoticed by first readers. So, I’ve been looking at chapter lengths in...

...over here, in a new section. Have a go! It’s the antidote to all other writing contests (you’ll enjoy it a lot more!). So now it's started – you need to start to play around with the voting. Everyone so far has been awfully restrained and hasn’t voted… that’s got to change! I did say in the...

Talent isn’t enough . . . Writing is work. Anyone can do this, anyone can learn to do this. It’s not rocket science, it’s habits of mind and habits of work. I started with people much more talented than me, and they’re dead or in jail or not writing. The difference between myself and them is...

Per Hermingway. Only I use a keyboard instead of a typewriter. In his day I would have bled whiteout. Boy do I NOT miss typewriters. But having seen multiple things on social media about how people who do things they don't want to do live longer- I figure writers have the chance to outlive...

New blog post by Jake E – discussions in this thread, please --- I recently had a great movie night with my daughter. We made a fort (three kitchen chairs with a blanket thrown over the top and far too many stuffed toys to get comfortable), we made popcorn and a bowl of Skittles, and settled...

Write beautifully what people don’t want to hear. Frederick Seidel

New blog post by Robinne Weiss – discussions in this thread, please --- As a writer, I tend to focus on plot. I love a good action scene, and I also enjoy writing dialogue (probably stems from loving to talk, myself. LOL!). Over the years, I’ve developed a method for outlining my novels that’s...

Well, it's been a heck of a year :rolleyes: sparing everyone the details, our immediate family (me, my wife and both our fathers) were struck with various cancers so... #fuckcancer Now that's over with, I've come back out of hiatus and I'm back to writing again. I published my fourth book just...

Yesterday I dug up the first short story I ever wrote, back in 2011. I loved it at the time. It is a hybrid between real experiences from my life, and some necessary fiction to move the scenes along. I'm not sure if it constitutes creative non-fiction, but something of that nature. I wrote it in...

Hello everyone, Despite not being from the US or any English-speaking country, my career started out with writing in English. I used to post to Reddit's short scary stories sub, and some of my work was picked up by an Asian publisher, gaining quite a bit of mileage. So I kind of built from...

Bad writing is bad not just because the language is humdrum, but the quality of the observation is so poor. Christopher Isherwood

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel like I should be doing something else. Gloria Steinem

"Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear." Patricia Fuller

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. Isaac Asimov

“I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shovelling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” Shannon Hale

Writing is basically a job for people who like punching themselves in the face, I’m pretty sure. Warren Ellis

Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon. Ann Patchett

'This (writing) is the love of your life. It's what I want to do when I wake up. Nothing feels so absorbing, so fulfilling.' Martin Amis

“Writing is about a blank piece of paper and leaving out what’s not supposed to be there.” John Prine

Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human situation. Graham Greene