Writers have different technique, styles, and superstitions about writing. Here are a few tips from the greats.
1. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Ernest Hemingway
2. “Go spit in the face of our inevitable obsolescence and finish your @#$%ng novel.” John Green
3. “There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.” Doris Lessing
4. “One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing- writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” Lawrence Block
5. “First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!” Ray Bradbury
6. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams
7. “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well.” Stephen King
8. “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison
9. “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E.L. Doctorow
10. “If I waited for perfection I would never write a word.” Margaret Atwood
11. “When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” George Orwell
12. “It’s none of their business that you had to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Ernest Hemingway
14. “Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” Barbara Kingsolver.
15. “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.” JD Salinger
And there you have it!
Happy holidays and THANK YOU for reading this blog and keeping interest in Hemingway alive. Love, Christine
Hi there………love your blog…..all the very best for Christmas time and happy new year !!!, Do you have a Facebook page about EH ?
Cheers,
Angie
hi Angie! Thanks so very much for writing. I don’t have a Hemingway Facebook page. There are some although none that are super active. There is a Pinterest page with some photos. Goodreads has a group, but again, not super active. Maybe someone out there who is as avid as we are can start one that is active. If I had more time . . . I’m doing final edits of Hemingway’s Daughter and it is taking more time than expected! of course, it is. Happy new Year to you and yours and thank you again. Best, Christine