Proof to See

"Proofread carefully to see if you any words out."
   - Author Unknown

Or to see what extra words are hiding in in your writings.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Rite Right? Wrong Write

Rite Right? Wrong Write.
   - S.R. Lundin


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Watch and See

Read and watch, write and see.
- S.R. Lundin


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Relief of Silence

"Writing is a struggle against silence."

   - Carlos Fuentes

On the contrary, writing is relief from the noise of characters, stories, themes, plots, and ideas all clamoring for attention. Writing is a relief of silence.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Totter Like the Rest of Us

"The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium."

   - Norbet Platt

This is comforting for new authors. Out there is balance. Get up. Keep writing, especially after the effort to become a writer knocks the crap out of you. Until you regain your equilibrium, keep going; all you have to do is think shallow and totter like the rest of us.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Favorite Book

If you have a favorite book, then you haven't read enough books.
    - S.R. Lundin


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Cridiots

"There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just heard that his brain child is a deformed idiot."
   - L. Sprague de Camp


Excepting, of course, the professional opinions of deformed cridiots (critics who are idiots).


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Whisper Write

"What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers."
- Logan Pearsall Smith (Afterthoughts)
Reading is like listening to your father. When he talks, you listen. When he shouts, you miss most of what he says. When he preaches, you think of your plans for later that night and, when he whispers, you never miss a word. Writers must use every voice if their whispers are to scream.

Please visit Shooting an Albatross

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

No Refunds for Skipping

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."

- Elmore Leonard

What is read today, though skipped last year, gets honored next month. Fickle fellows favor fashion, though astute authors are always audacious; they keep their pennies. They refund nothing for the parts readers skip.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

C.R.A.P.

"Be obscure clearly." - E.B. White

The king of clarity pushing obscurity? That's like a rapper singing country (country+rap= crap).


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Prostitues

"Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money."
-Moliere

Writing really is like prostitution. Writers do share themselves with whomever pays them, they numb themselves from reality while they work, agents pimp them out on the street, and only the best make the big money. Hmm. It's no wonder Hollywood portrays them as drunks, psychos, and addicts.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Some Things Never Change

"Not every story has explosions and car chases. That's why they have nudity and espionage."

- Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

Nudity and espionage are cheap easy tricks for getting attention. So, too, are explosions and car chases. But stories in which nothing explodes, where cars stay still, characters remain clothed, and no one spies on their neighbors are boring to modern readers. Ironically, writers today must show meaning in speeding, sneaking, lurking, smashing, and stripping characters. But that's writing. Some things never change.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Will and Desire

"I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see instead perseverance, application, industry, assiduity, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire."
- Gordon Lish

If you write until you feel Lish's meaning, you will never stop writing.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Characteristic of You

"The characteristic of Chaucer is intensity: of Spencer, remoteness: of Milton elevation and of Shakespeare everything."


- William Hazlitt



... the characteristics of you, who knows? Write something. Let posterity figure you out.



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© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Hear, Feel, and See

"My task...is to make you hear, to make you feel--and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything."
- Joseph Conrad

Doctor, make you hear,
Preacher, make you feel,
Teacher, make you see,
A writer? ... make you hear, feel, and see?

"That is all, and it is everything." - Joseph Conrad (M.D., pastor, Ph.D.?)

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Write in The Zone

"The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness."
- Julia Ward Howe

Professional basketball players "in the zone" do not deliberate. Their years of dedication, passion, and practice gives them the stroke and swiftness of a champion. They seem "unconscious" while they are playing. The same can be true for writers. Beginning writers should, and do, over think their words, sentences, and paragraphs, remembering to dribble first, thinking to plant their foot, to box-out, rebound, keep their hands up, and so on. They practice for years. While only a few ever write in the zone, most writers are satisfied just being unconscious.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

When a Nation Loses

"If a nation loses its [writers], it loses its childhood."
- Peter Handke

When a nation loses its readers, it loses its wisdom.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Trust Inspiration

"When I sit at my table to write, I never know what it's going to be until I'm under way. I trust in inspiration, which sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't. But I don't sit back waiting for it. I work every day."

- Alberto Moravia

Try it. Write every day. You will discover writing, and inspiration will discover you. You will learn you can trust it. Inspiration always comes every time. But writers beware! Inspiration will always out wait your complacency.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Bore The Reader

"It is a cardinal sin to bore the reader."

- Larry Niven

Whether it is the whisper of a nudge, shout of a shove, or scream of a scratch, published authors can always hear the sound of their success or failure. Unfortunately, it can happen after they have already lost their readers, and to get them back requires something like forgiving a cardinal sin. It takes a miracle. It takes a savior - just don't go there.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Crazy

"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."
- John Lennon

While imagination without reality is only insanity, reality without imagination is death. Writers imagine between insanity and death. They're crazy.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved