Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Stephen King Is My New Mentor


Stephen King,
On Writing

It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around.

...

You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair -- the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.

...

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

2 comments:

Kathleen Gallagher said...

One book I would heartily recommend on writing is called "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser. Lots of practical advice on how to improve your writing. And it's a good read too, so he must know something!

nadine said...

Thanks, Kathleen!

I shall look it up :)

I find that reading makes me want to write. So I'm reading as much as I can....