Quoting Gloria

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

Writing is the only reason I could ever quote Gloria Steinem.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Two Word Quotations

Two word quotations require one hundred words of thought.
- S.R. Lundin


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Voodoo Word Games

"In composing, as a general rule, run a pen through every other
word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give
your style."
- Sydney Smith


___ advice ___ helps ___ write ___, but ___ you __ read ___ crap?

I played Smith's game with a simple sentence. Instead of adding vigor to my writing style, the exercise spoke a truth and asked a question. I won't play that again. What if these hidden communications had been "writing will kill you" or "today you will die?" Smith's voodoo game of words needs a warning label. Play at your own risk.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Hook of the Bottle

"If your vision of a writer involves sitting in a cafe, sipping an aperitif with one's fellow geniuses, become a drunk. It's easier and far less exhausting."
- William Hefferman

Writers drawn to the lure of image are easily caught by the hook of the bottle.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writing Counts

“Writing counts.”
- Allyson Dickey

The number of ways writing counts? It's impossible to count.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Exquisite Burden

“Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.”
-Bernard Malamud


Had Bernard Malamud called revision one of the "necessary burdens" instead of "exquisite pleasures" of writing, I would think of him like a brother. Instead, he's more the father my mother left before I was born.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Answer with a Letter

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call."
- Liz Carpenter

What's worse? Being unable to reread a phone call or not being able to read all of your email? Answer with a letter.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Nail Biting

"Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before. Get up and bite on the nail."
- Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's advice is great. Try it. Get up and write every day -- no matter what you did the night before or at what time you went to bed. And don't worry about biting the nail. In time, you'll feel like you've swallowed it whole.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

The Writing Magic

"When you start writing the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words for themselves."
- Alice Hoffman

Writing takes hard work, not magic. When you're writing and your characters refuse to come to life, be thankful. They need you. They're just characters, but they have an awesome ability of bringing writers to life.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

The Naked Costume

"Writing songs is super intimate. It's a bit like getting naked."
- Gwen Stephani

Writing fiction is like being a stage actor. You wear so many costumes that even your friends have trouble seeing the real you.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Good for the Wealth

"Writing is hard work and bad for the health."
- E B White

Bad for the health but good for the wealth.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Television's Whore

"Television has raised writing to a new low."
- Samuel Goldwyn

Television affects writing like a half rack of beer. It lightens her mood, loosens her tongue, slurs her speech, and removes her inhibitions. Instead of a lover, though, television is a pimp, making writing his whore.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Fiction's Spider

"Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners."
- Virginia Woolf

Fiction's spider plays. She abandons her web the moment she senses the writer's approach, enticing him to explore her sticky trap. And then she returns, then she bites. Instead of devouring him, though, she leaves him stuck on a one genre web. She knows from experience that most writers never escape. Fewer still even try.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Anger Writes Noise

Words sound the emotions of your moments. When you're angry, never write about love. Anger writes noise.
Instead of weakness, write out of your strength. When you are happy, the mood spreads through your writings like sunlight through the dark, touching, lighting, and warming even the coldest pains of your heart. Happiness writes itself.
- SR Lundin


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Don't Quote Me

Screenplay writing is more like computer programming than real writing, but don't quote me on that.
- S.R. Lundin


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Hell on Earth

"My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing."
- Anonymous

Imagine the opposite working habits: short periods of thinking and long periods of writing. If not dystopia, then hell on earth.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Thankful for Poets

"I firmly believe every book was meant to be written."
- Marchette Chute

Had Marchette Chute been a literary agent, her "every book was meant to be written" might have been "only a few books were meant to be written, and my job is to find them. Yours is not one."

Writers, be thankful for poets.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writer's Test

"The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any."
- Russell Baker

WRITER'S TEST (answer the following):

1. The only work you are fit for is writing Yes / No
2. Writing is not real work Yes / No
3. Writing does not require any work Yes / No
4. You are a Pulitzer Prize winning author Yes / No


RESULTS (count number of Yes answers):

zero -- Don't waste your time writing
one -- Never stop doing what you do
two -- Discover the truth
three -- There is no truth
four -- You are Russell Baker (or a Pulitzer winner just like him)


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

99% of Stories

"The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home."
- John Campbell

Today's reason why 99% of all stories are not bought by editors is as simple as the old reason. Instead of writers leaving manuscripts sitting on closet shelves at home, they're sending them to literary agents. The result is the same; editors never buy what they never see.





© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Rejection

"Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil - but there is no way around them."
- Isaac Asimov

No trying, no rejection.
One rejection, one broken heart.
One hundred rejections, one hardened heart.
Years of rejection, one hell of a writer.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Lovers, Siblings, and Enemies

"Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies."
- Emme Woodhull-Bäche

The relationships between ink and paper are the same relationships writers have with their writings. When writing, they have passionate lovers. When editing, siblings, and when they get stuck waiting for inspiration, they have mortal enemies. How ironic it is that only their mortal enemies cannot kill them. Their lovers and siblings are another story.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Great Effort

"When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing."
- Enrique Jardiel Poncela

When something can be written without effort, great effort is needed to proof it.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved