Signs

"All characters are based on elements of a writer's personal experience."

               - Robert Holdstock

A writer is everywhere in his writing; so are the people he meets.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Trash

"A story has been thought to its conclusion when it has taken its worst possible turn."

         - Friedrich Durrenmatt

Fortunately for readers, the conclusion often involves a trash can.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Self-criticism

"I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself."

               - Irwin Shaw

While self-criticism washes like a warm drizzle on a summer day, the criticism of strangers soaks like one of those slanting, face-on, pressure washes of winter.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Rescripting

Screenplays improve with every rewrite. You can spend your lifetime rewriting the perfect script. Unfortunately, no one will ever find it if you're dead.
        - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Master Mind

"I am a galley slave to pen and ink."

         - Honore de Balzac

Master is in the mind.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Kiss of Death

"A kiss that speaks volumes is seldom a first edition."

         - Clare Whiting

Writing without passion is a sure kiss of death.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Need Nerve

"You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer."

         - Margaret Atwood

Thick skin is helpful too.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Calling a Screenplay

Calling a screenplay a template is like calling sheet music an outline.

        - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

End of Editing

Publication: The end of editing and beginning of revision.

- S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writing is to Reading

Writing is to reading what cooking is to eating.
   - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Sin not Read

"When I am dead, I hope it may be said:

'His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.'"
     - Hilaire Belloc

...and still to this day I hear his voice in my head.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Baby Pictures

Seeing your first screenplay is like seeing baby pictures of you in a diaper.

   - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Blockhead

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

- Samuel Johnson

From the money I make from writing, it's a wonder I can lift my head.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Roaches

Writing errors are like roaches. If you find one, you can be sure hundreds more lie hidden in your manuscript.
        - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Shortening your Screenplay

Shortening your screenplay is like selling your possessions. You save the best for last.

                  - S.R. Lundin

© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Actions of Men

"I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts."
                    - John Locke

I have always thought the desires of most men the limit of their action; they sit and they want. For those who keep standing, their desires become their achievements.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Droplet of Wisdom

"Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space."
       - Orson Scott Card

A droplet of wisdom.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

To Be Done

To be done writing is to be done living.

    - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Day Without Writing

A day without writing is like a day without family.

    - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

When Writing

Feeling the emotions of your characters is as natural as laughing when you're happy or crying when you're sad.
      - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

True When You Start

"Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake."

    - E.L. Doctorow

There's no doubt about it: Writing changes everyone, especially the writer.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Newlove

"Remember: Writing can get you fed to a lion whose teeth draw your whole face into its foul wet breath and cut your skull with knives. There's no soft way to put this. A black hole swallows you up. Willpower's no help. Getting in print is like beating cancer but losing a lung, staying in print is hopeless. Your best work goes begging.....Today's paragraph comes, a word from the heart of the universe, and shines in the darkness, unquenched. And you ask for power, wisdom, and love as you make the anvil sing."

     - Donald Newlove

Whew! What ever happened to the old love?


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Love What You Do

If you write every day with something to say,

You'll love what you do and not throw it away.
                - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Surviving Interruptions

"The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation."
      - Elias Canetti

Writing is life's ultimate interruption.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Dressing and Stripping

"Writing is both mask and unveiling."

   - E.B. White

Yes sir. It's dressing and stripping.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Don't be Fooled

"Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head."
- From the movie Finding Forrester

Don't be fooled. Do the opposite. If you write the first draft with your head and re-write with your heart, you will take months off the time it takes to finish your masterpiece.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Wonder

"We don't write what we know. We write what we wonder about."

                  - Richard Peck

I know the world is full of wonder, so what was Peck saying?


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Sitting on Top

"The best time for planning a book is when you're doing the dishes."

- Agatha Christie

When you're outside, the best place for planning a book is on top of a mower.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Equal Excitement

"Sure, it's simple, writing for kids . . . . Just as simple as bringing them up."
        - Ursula K. LeGuin

It's an equal excitement, sending a child off to college and a book off to production... Just as equal as the disappoint felt when either returns rejected.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Swing for the Fence

"If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes."
            - Mickey Spillane

Regardless of age and experience, writers should swing for the fence. That's how to hit a home run.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Challenge for Fiction Writers

"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think."

    - Edwin Schlossberg

The challenge for fiction writers is creating scenes readers can see, emotions they can feel, and thoughts they must think.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Master in Death

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

- Ernest Hemingway

Concerning writers, master is a synonym for dead.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Splatter Write

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

      - Scott Adams

Splatter words on a page and call it art? No thanks. Prepare with a bucket, write with a bucket, edit with a brush.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Learning to Write

"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."

     - Truman Capote

Beware that you do not spend so much time learning how to write that you never write.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Reward of Achievement

"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."

       - Elbert Hubbard

Criticism is a reward of achievement.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Presence is Absence

"Writing is a struggle between presence and absence."
            - Lu Ji

While writing, presence is absence.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Idiots, Fools, and Buffoons

"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning."

   - George Orwell

All writers, after encountering such passages and trying to understand them, uncovering their flaws, raging against the stupidity, and then coming to some final place of piece--if such a place exists--should consider the critic behind the criticism. It helps when creating believable characters who are idiots, fools, and buffoons.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

The End

"Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin."

- Stanislaw J. Lec

Instead of stopping before you begin, get started and quit at "The End."


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Had to be There

"Writing well means never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.'"
      - Jef Mallett

Well written means being able to say, "I felt I was there."


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Last Line First

"If I didn't know the ending of a story, I wouldn't begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first."
- Katherine Anne Porter

I prefer to start in the middle and work my way out. Either direction, there's only 1/2 of a story to write.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Do It in Private

"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."
   - Robert Heinlein

One time, when I was working on my first novel, I went to a coffee shop and wrote in public. Writing was still new to me; I didn't know what I didn't know. So I go to this place, sit with latte and laptop, and enter the fictitious world of my story, where my hero had goals, obstacles to overcome to achieve those goals, a love interest, an antagonist with competing goals, and a character arc that was only half of a rainbow.

As I got into the story, I got out of the present. I saw the story as it unfolded in my mind, grinning through one whole scene, smiling at a twist in plot, raising my arms in wonder, laughing out loud at the irony, and stopping once to have a drink of the latte. The cup was full. The drink was cold.

In their furtive glances, I realized that the people in the coffee shop were thinking what Robert Heinlein said in his quotation. "[Write] in private." As for washing my hands afterwards? Let's just say I write in a much cleaner genre.




© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Seat of Your Feet

"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair."
- Mary Heaton Vorse

Writing quotations reveal writers. While most writers understand and share certain truths about writing--like the need to write every day--some come up with clever little thoughts that I do not share. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair? That's funny, but it's also irrelevant. I write on my feet.

My son built a stand-up desk for me after I complained that chair writing was taking my strength. With muscles, it's use them or lose them and, after only four years of writing every day, sitting for hours in front of a keyboard, out of the elements, indoors, warm, soft, and sedate, I discovered chair writing is unhealthy writing.

Maybe it would be different if I could still run. Between writing, I would go out, get my legs working, arms pumping, lungs gasping, and blood gushing. That would be something! Then I could safely sit for hours and write. I could laugh out loud at Mary Heaton Vorse's little quotation. As it is, I adapted her words to my situation.

The art of writing, then, is the art of applying the seat of the feet to the head of the floor.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Enough Rope to Hang

"I would never write about anyone who is not at the end of his rope."

- Stanley Elkin

Instead of the end of their ropes, write about characters with enough rope to hang themselves. It raises the stakes, ups the tension, tingles the spine, and turns the page.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

First is the Heart

"The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first."
- Pascal
The first thing one settles in writing a book is his heart.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Today's Writers

"The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties."
    - W. Somerset Maugham
The trouble with today's writers is they're the fallout of the sixties.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

"The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block."

     - Inigo de Leon

It's simple: What the keyboard did for writer's cramp, writing does for writer's block.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Prices to Pay

"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist, you are learning your craft- then you can add all the genius you like."
     - Phyllis Whitney


Rejection, disappointment, and discouragement are small prices to pay when you're pursuing a passion.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

First Loves

"Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss."

- Charles Dickens

Goldilocks would have been my first love, if it wasn't for those damn bears.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Afford Poverty

"As a younger man I wrote for eight years without ever earning a nickel which is a long apprenticeship, but in that time I learned a lot about my trade."
      - James Michener

No longer young, in my fifth year of writing, learning the trade, and earning just above a nickel, I advise aspiring writers to start young -- while they can afford poverty.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

A Reason

"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think."

- La Bruyere

Life is not a genre for those who write. It's a reason.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

All That You Want

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Read more than you write, learn more than you know, then write all that you want.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Two Parts Decision

Recipe for Writer's block: One part enthusiasm, two parts decision, and three parts procrastination.

- S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Mere Habit

"The mere habit of writing, of constantly keeping at it, of never giving up, ultimately teaches you how to write."

- Gabriel Fielding

If habit is not the greatest teacher, it's easily the most inspirational.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writing Day

"Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day."
- Norman Mailer

When every day is a writing day, everyday is a good day.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Screenplay to Movie

Screenplay is to movie what grin is to smile.  
    - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Live Present Tense

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit."

- Henry David Thoreau

Change season to present in the above quotation, and Thoreau gives excellent advice to writers. Live, breathe, drink, taste, and see: Be present in the present tense.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

From Novel to Screen

Going from novel to screen requires a thousand decisions about what to cut and what to keep. Thankfully, the answer to one simple question helps every time: Does it (the scene) forward the story? Yes? Keep it. No? kill it. Not sure? Cut it. When you master the movement of story you reduce adapting to a problem of time. Unfortunately, no one has a solution for time.
             - S.R. Lundin



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Failure Lacks Endurance

Keep writing. Failure lacks endurance. - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Guts of a Writer

"Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential."

       - Jessamyn West

Discipline, persistence, patience, endurance -- the guts of a writer.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Einstein the Comedian

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
    - Albert Einstein

Humor is a well known marker of intelligence, and Einstein's humor was some of the best. Knowledge is finite? That's hilarious. After all, knowledge is the seed of imagination--limit one and limit the other.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Rushed Writing

Rushed writing is slow work.
                       - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Eternal when Internal

"Mere literary talent is common; what is rare is endurance, the continuing desire to work hard at writing."
   - Donald Hall

Endurance is eternal when internal, infernal when external.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Exercise Imagination

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to popular belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young."

               - William Somerset Maugham

Like imagination, ambition weakens without exercise and, in agreement with experience, both are more active in the young than in the mature. There is your reason -- Exercise imagination now!


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writing is Work

Writing is work without pay and a boss.
                               - S.R. Lundin

© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Grammar Rejected

If text and texted, but flex and not flexted, then grammar rejected.
        - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Stop writing, start dying? Maybe, but it smacks of beginner's belief. So what really happens when a writer quits writing? May you never know.

                   - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Freedom

"Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down."

- Robert Frost

I played tennis without a net in Carpentaria, California. It was fun for about two minutes, but then it became a big waste of time. The challenge was to remain interested -- to keep at an activity that required no skill, lacked reward, and offered little more than pseudo exercise. Robert Frost compared writing free verse with playing tennis without a net, but the similarity is limited to a lack of confinement, not enjoyment, improvement, or time well spent.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Legless

A critic is a legless man who teaches running."

       - Anonymous

Worse is the crowd he runs with.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

The Public Purse

"The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all."

- Mark Twain

Just follow the money. The public criticizes with a purse.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Therefore I Write

"I think, therefore I am."

         - René Descartes

I've written, therefore I write.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Respectable Explanation

"The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."

               - John Steinbeck

When money is your motive for writing fiction, lie and say that it's not. It's a respectable explanation for being so broke.


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

One Quote a Day

One quote a day keeps writing in play.
- S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Ending Again

"Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending."
                        - Longfellow

Greatest of all is ending again, and again, and again...


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Write, Lead, and Follow

Write so men might read; lead so they might follow; follow so they will write.

                    - S.R. Lundin


© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Antagonism Acts with Reason

"Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Antagonism feels and acts with reason, and therefore is always wrong.



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Life Side of Hell

Writing without passion is torture on the life-side of hell. If it's your job, then it's only hell on earth.
                - S.R. Lundin

© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Window to the Author

The story is a window to its author, like his shoes are a window to his wallet.

                  - S.R. Lundin



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Passion Creates

Passion creates the writer.   - S.R. Lundin



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

A Writer Tries

"A man in public life expects to be sneered at—it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not of himself."

- Charles Dickens

Writers expect to be rejected -- if not the fault of their writing, it's the fault of their trying to do what others will not.

© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Resolve to Write

New year, new story: Write every day. By this time next year, you will either be filled with the passion or emptied of the dream.

- S.R. Lundin



© 2010 Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved