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

Sell Out

"Writers are always selling somebody out."
- Joan Didion

Sell out your hero and sell out your readers. Sell out your antagonist and sell out your books


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

The Muddle

"Many modern novels have a beginning, a muddle and an end."

- Philip Larkin

Character is in the muddle.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Art of Words

"Literature is all, or mostly, about sex."
- Anthony Burgess

Literature is not at all about sex. If it was, then more people would write, but fewer would read. Literature is, instead, the art of words, painted with fingers and viewed in minds.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved