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Category Archives: quotes
Chris Boucher quote
One of my favorite quotes ever: “There are no good guys. There are no bad guys. There are only better guys, and worse guys.” —Chris Boucher I post it at the start of this year because one of my goals … Continue reading
Rear, meet seat; fingers, meet keyboard.
One of my favorite pithy sayings about writing is “ass in chair, fingers on keyboard.” It’s short and to the point. Unless you write standing up, or perhaps sitting on a rubber doughnut, it’s pretty standard for a writer to … Continue reading
Posted in quotes, writing, writing process
2 Comments
Love & Mysteries
“Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective’s struggle to solve the problem. It stacks the cards, and in nine cases out of ten, it eliminates at least … Continue reading
Posted in chandler, mystery, quotes
2 Comments
Turn Your Writing Topsy-Turvy
In Jane Yolen’s Take Joy: A Writer’s Guide to Loving the Craft, she writes, “When we force ourselves to go topsy-turvy, we can see anew what is on the page,” (p. 49).She suggests taking a single chapter and re-reading the … Continue reading
Art has a shape.
“One thing that makes art different from life is that in art things have a shape; they have beginnings, middles, and endings. Whereas in life, things just drift along. In life, somebody has a cold, and you treat it as … Continue reading
What Happens in the Reader’s Mind
“A writer’s talking about what he or she is capable of, like a writer’s talking about the worth of his or her own work, is a pretty good way for that writer to start sounding like a pompous poseur. Above … Continue reading
Proposing and Disposing
“I shall now defuse this highly explosive bomb while simultaneously, and at the same time, reciting from the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.” –Gonzo the Great While I’m writing my Crimean War time travel story, I’m also thinking about the … Continue reading
Posted in business of writing, moonlight mistress, quotes, writing process
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Good versus Talented
“Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind—vividly, forcefully…” — Samuel R. Delany, About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews
Purposeful, Habitual, and Gratuitous
“As early as 1959 or ’60, I’d noticed that there was something terribly wrong with the female characters in most novels I was reading. Most of the writers (men and women) tended to conceive of their male characters as combinations … Continue reading
Posted in quotes, writing craft
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Black Wine opening
I really love the opening to Candas Jane Dorsey’s Black Wine (1997). # There’s a scarred, twisted old madwoman in a cage in the courtyard. The nurse throws a crust at her as he passes, therefore so does the girl. … Continue reading