Just the Lie

"Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer."

- G. C. Lichtenberg (1742-99)

Ah, the good old days: So innocent. Today, it's three lies for one witty turn, and the witty turn is optional.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writing Straight Out

"I know that if I have been working on one paragraph and I have written it three times, it goes in the bin. Unless it comes straight out, it is wrong, it is awkward, it does not fit."

- Robert Rankin

Forcing sentences and paragraphs makes writing hard work. Easy writing is easy work. Robert Rankin says it well: Writing is right, comfortable, and fits when "it comes straight out."


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writer's Bite

"All of a writer that matters is in the book or books. It is idiotic to be curious about the person."

-Jean Rhys

What? Idiotic to care about the writer? Even though they're damn hard to catch, I want to see the spider that bites me.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Focus

"Words are a lens to focus one's mind. "

- Ayn Rand

Focus on words, see the sentence,
Focus on sentences; see the paragraph,
Focus on paragraphs, miss the story,
Focus small; write big.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Day is Done

"To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all."

- Lord Byron

Writers cannot withdraw themselves from their writings. It doesn't work. Sure we might read a story in which the characters, action, and dialog captivate us for three hundred pages or more, but then we are done. Whether in genre, voice, grammar, punctuation, or style, the writer is there in his story, and then there's the cover. Go to any bookstore and look at the bestsellers. Most titles are small compared to the names of their authors.

Today, Lord Byron's quotation is long out of date; it reads like he wrote it when the earth was still flat. Byron was a poet and, in his defense, readers seek themselves in poetry instead of the poet. In books they seek the story, and that is where they always find the writer. Poets withdraw and writers advance.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Years Yet to Live

"For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word."

- Catherine Drinker Bowen

For your dead writer, nothing is more discouraging than the realization he has years yet to live.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Victory for Life

"Every word written is a victory against death."
- Michel Butor

Every book written is a victory for life.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Live With That

"Life cannot defeat a writer who is in love with writing; for life itself is a writer's love until death."

- Edna Ferber

Even though I believe writing will be my love until death, I wonder. If life cannot defeat a writer, why is it beating the hell out of me? Apparently, I have writing to thank for my survival; I can live with that.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Familiar to Us

"If a reporter doesn't like the person he's writing about, it shows up in his article."
- Willie Stargell

Novelists draw from such a large group of unlikable acquaintances that they never use just one in their writings. Instead, they combine the worst of each into a single character and call the monster, Antagonist. There's no wonder why such characters seem so real to us. Most are.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Authors and Lovers

"Authors and Lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free."

- Samuel Johnson

Check that; it's absence, not abstinence.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Inspired Writing

"Good work doesn't happen with inspiration. It comes with
constant, often tedious and deliberate effort."
- William Hefferman

Inspiration is what makes the "constant, tedious, and deliberate effort" to write as easy as breathing, addicting as living, and pleasurable as... well, as pleasurable as whatever you enjoy the most. Inspired writing is no work at all.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Something to Say

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Everyone has a story to tell. Most tell it with email, instant messaging, cell. phones, chat rooms, social networking, or chewing lips. Writers say it with silence.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Neither Man nor God

"Neither man nor God is going to tell me what to write."
- James T. Farrell

Damn right! You're the boss. What you write is yours alone. Hide it. That way no one will ever know you existed.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Celebrate Writing

Celebrate Writing
"Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing."
- Melinda Haynes

Remember the rules. Think about being published. Write for everyone and wait to have your big party. That's how you celebrate writing.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Ultimate Fighting

"Listening to critics is like letting Muhammad Ali decide which astronaut goes to the moon."
-Robert Duvall

Challenging critics is like taking on a young Muhammad Ali. While he had muscle and moves long ago, critics have them today, and they never use gloves. There's no wonder ultimate fighting has grown in popularity! It's how writers face their critics.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

New Thing New Way

"The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way."
- Richard Harding Davis

Say an old thing in a new way for your father, a new thing in an old way for your grandfather, and a new thing in a new way for ever.

© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Write Now, Right Now

"Everything changes when you change."
-Jim Rohn

Everything changes when you write. Don't wait to start. Sure you'll be older and wiser when you finally begin, but your voice will be that of a child. Write now, right now.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Once Upon a Time

"May I never grow too old to treasure 'once upon a time'."
- Anonymous

May I remain young enough to write it.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Writing Survives

"Success comes to a writer as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed."
- P.G. Wodehouse

Put a frog in a pan of cold water, turn on the heat, and watch what happens. When the temperature rises as slowly as success comes to a writer, the frog boils to death without feeling it happen.

Writers have the opposite problem; they do not feel cold. Encourage them to publish and watch what happens. When the temperature lowers as fast as rejection comes to writers, they freeze without feeling it happen.

While frogs boil and writers freeze, writing survives.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Face of Writer's Block

“A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.”
- Sidney Sheldon

If God speaks to us through blank pages, then blank computer documents are His way of telling us to write. If not, they're Satan's way of scaring us with writer's block.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved