School is out and we're managing houseguests and gearing up
for some summer travel. My writing schedule has been reduced to noodling in my
journal over the past few days. I went through my old journals/commonplace books
and found some quotes for inspiration. Here are a few in no particular order. Enjoy!
“How the first draft lists will show you how the story will
blow.” ~ Carol Bly in The Passionate Accurate Story
“Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a
thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like
weather.” ~ John Gardner in The Art of Fiction
“I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then
another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great
deal to add.” ~ Gore Vidal
“Perfection is not
very communicative” ~ Yo-Yo Ma
“Readers may savor nuance, unless it illuminates and deepens
a clear-cut pattern they’ve been following, it’s nothing more than fancy window
dressing in a vacant house.” ~ Lisa Cron in Wired for Story
“We write to taste live twice, in the moment and in
retrospect.” ~ Anais Nin
“Many writers practice “pain avoidance,” don’t.” ~ Carol Bly
in The Passionate Accurate Story
“No two persons ever read the same book.” ~ Edmund Wilson
“Instead of thinking each draft has to be “it,” just try to
make your story a little bit better than it was in the previous draft.” ~ LisaCron in Wired for Story
“All good fiction has moment-by-moment fascination. It has
authority and at least a touch of strangeness. It draws us in.” ~ John Gardner
in The Art of Fiction
“You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too
big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because there's too
much going on that you can't take into account. You can, however, write a
perfect sentence now and then.” ~ Gore Vidal
“Let go of the edge of the pool.” ~ me
