“Authors really depend on editors for one thing: the truth.” Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do, by Gerald Gross, is a collection of essays by editors, illuminating all the different things that go on in that strange editorial realm between writers’ and readers’ imaginations. The book is broken into two[…]
Love this answer by Robet McKee in an interview on Storylink.com. Debra Eckerling asked him, How important is the process of rewriting? Robert McKee: “It’s absolutely critical. I quote Hemingway in my book who said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” What’s difficult for writers to come to terms with is to recognize that 90%[…]
I feel sad when I finish the last touches on a manuscript I’ve been editing and have to say goodbye to the characters, especially after spending months being so involved in their lives and every move. But I can’t imagine what it’s like for an author, who has usually spent years writing, rewriting, revising, and[…]
David Foster Wallace, on how television can be great for writers… First, television does a lot of our predatory human research for us. American human beings are a slippery and protean bunch in real life, hard as hell to get any kind of universal handle on. But television comes equipped with just such a handle.[…]
The people who master an art like storytelling are not aliens with freakish talents and powers; they’re just the people who care the most. It takes a massive amount of self-discipline and faith to devote years and years to getting incrementally better at a craft, and to push through the dark times of tedious monotony, doubts[…]
Just started reading my copy of The Scorpion Game by Daniel Jeffries, which is now available to buy for the Amazon Kindle, and I’m excited about it all over again. I helped to co-edit this story, and re-reading it has reminded me how much fun it was to work on, and also how intimidating it was, because it’s just that[…]
OK, I admit it, I’m addicted to quotes about books and writing and art. When I’m supposed to be taking a break from the computer, perhaps to go drink a tea at the window and let my eyes see the Outside World instead of just pixels, I usually come-to after about fifteen minutes and realize[…]
TREASURE! Today I stumbled upon this collection of short clips from the Writer’s Confessions series: writers talking about the writing process. They’re good! I watched them all… Here are some of my favorite quotes>>> Claudia Dey on how writing is like taxidermy. (I LOVE this one. Taxidermy totally captures the weirdness, darkness, beauty and deception of writing.) “I[…]
Another great quote from one of my favourite books, Science Fiction 101 by Robert Silverberg. A lot of narrative technique is actually something that you figure out unconsciously as you absorb other people’s narratives; later you may consciously codify a set of rules, and later on you internalize them again so that they operate without[…]