Tuesday, July 12, 2011

A few things I've learned about writing so far:
(Many of these ideas were taken from Lamott, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck)

-How would I describe it if I had never heard someone describe it before?
-Watch what happens today. What gave me excitement and why? Make the reader see it too and make him have the same feeling you had.
-Always try something that has never been done before or that others have tried and failed.
-Because there have been such great writers in the past, writers today are driven far out beyond where he can go. Out to where no one can help him.
-Only the human heart in conflict with itself seems worth writing about. The basis of all things is to be afraid.
-You own what happened to you.
-We rarely stop and pay attention. An author makes you stop and pay attention and that is a great gift.
-The reason you remember something is because it was meaningful to you. Find out why.
-Write what you see in a one inch picture frame. One memory, one scene, one exchange.
-Take out everything you possibly can.
-Start with your childhood and write down everything you remember. Kindergarten, lunch table, smells, old pictures, Boy Scouts, holidays, birthday candles, Grandparents, houses...fill up a book of memories.
-Pay attention to the way great writers write.
-It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do--you can either write or kill yourself.
-Don't be tidy. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Be naked and immediate.
-Use up lots of paper. Just scribble away.
-Write about the little things that everyone identifies with but thinks no one else notices.
-Sit down to write at same time every day.
-Keep a stack of your ten favorite books by your bed for inspiration.

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