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1. Learn to live frugally and don’t get into debt.
2. Write what you want, not what you think “the market” wants.
3. Turn off the television.
4. Don’t major in Creative Writing in college. Chances are it will drain the life out of your creativity.
5. Never, ever criticize yourself during a first draft.
6. Have the courage to revise your work.
7. Read every night before you go to sleep.
8. Do not pressure yourself by saying “I have to get this published by the time I am 20 (or 30, or 40, or 80, etc.)
9. Write the story in your heart.
10. Pay attention to William Faulkner’s wise words. He said “Don’t be ‘a writer.’ Be writing.
- Advice for Aspiring Authors, Laurie Halse Anderson
reblog
source:madwomanintheforest.com
notes:40
posted:4 months ago
tags:writing writer writing advice advice laurie halse anderson children's literature quote quotes not reblogged
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These were the sacred texts of childhood, whose authors had not forgotten what it was like to be a child. To read them was to feel a shock of recognition, a rush of liberating energy.
- Alison Lurie, in reference to Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Peter Pan, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz
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In a life in which there is no demand,” he had told Dave, “there is no meaning.”
“That’s nuts,” Dave had snarled rudely, then apologized. “Sorry, Rabbi, but demands are the whole trouble.”
The Rabbi had stroked his shapeless beard, looking over his steel-rimmed reading glasses at the surly boy, who did not appeal to him at all. “If no demand is put on you, then you are in a sense excluded.”
“From what?”
“Life itself. To be demanded of gives us dignity.”
Rob, obviously not understanding, was nevertheless listening. He stood on tiptoe by the reading stand and looked over it at the Rabbi. Dave shrugged.
Rabbi Levy spoke severely. “If someone expects, demands something of you, it means he takes you seriously.
- Madeleine L’Engle, The Young Unicorns
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Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don’t talk about doing it. Do it. Finish.
- E.L. Konigsburg
