To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself. – Anne Rice
THOSE WHO TELL THE STORIES RULE SOCIETY. – Plato
Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it. ~ Ernest Hemingway
The thing you are most afraid to write. Write that. ~ Advice to young writers
SOMETIMES ONLY PAPER WILL LISTEN TO YOU.
What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story.
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. ~ E. R. Doctorow
A certain darkness is needed to see the stars.
Writing is both mask and unveiling. ~ E. B. White
You must write for yourself and not what you think people want to read. ~ Jodi Ellen Malpas
Without great solitude, no serious work is possible. ~ Picasso
The first draft is just you telling yourself the story ~ Terry Pratchett
The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink. ~ T. S. Eliot
A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar. ~ Stephen King
Everybody has a chapter they don’t read out loud.
I thought about leaving these anonymous, but would rather you know: all writers are alike in their uniqueness. No two have quite the same story nor tell it exactly the same. Some are globally-acclaimed while others need to be Googled.
Yet were I to leave their names off these observations, you’d give every one of them the same respect.
In the end, if a writer’s being faithful to his or her calling they’ll be caught up, lost in the story, seated on the curb with the rest of us eating Red and GrapeVines and awaiting the next paragraph.
“This is so exciting! I wonder what happens next?”
“Wait. Aren’t you the writer?”
“Yeah . . . !”
© D. Dean Boone, August 2016