Wednesday, November 7

Quotes: Rules for Writing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-two

Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.
- Geoff Dyer

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.
- Anne Enright

You have to love before you can be relentless.
- Jonathan Franzen

Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
- Neil Gaiman

Don't just plan to write – write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.
- PD James

Be without fear. This is impossible, but let the small fears drive your rewriting and set aside the large ones ­until they behave – then use them, maybe even write them. Too much fear and all you'll get is silence.
- AL Kennedy

Don't worry about posterity – as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed "What will survive of us is love".
- Helen Dunmore

Ted Hughes gave me this advice and it works wonders: record moments, fleeting impressions, overheard dialogue, your own sadnesses and bewilderments and joys.
- Michael Morpurgo

Remember there is no such thing as nonsense.
- Andrew Motion

Keep a light, hopeful heart. But ­expect the worst.
- Joyce Carol Oates

Oh, and not forgetting the occasional beating administered by the sadistic guards of the imagination.-
- Will Self

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