Emilio Iasiello's Blog - Posts Tagged "craft"
Best Advice on Writing I’ve Received
I have had many influential people that have helped guide me on my path to becoming a full time writer; a journey that has not been quite reached to date. Nevertheless, they have given me some good advice over the years. Here’s a “greatest hits” list from these individuals; some prominent authors, some not so prominent; but all their words, valuable and necessary. In no particular order, here are ten memorable lines from these men/women:
· Start your story as close to the end as possible. No one cares about how a watch is made, only the time it keeps.
· Write and read every day. Doesn’t matter what it is, or how good it is, but write. If you don’t write, you aren’t a writer, plain and simple.
· There are no final drafts, just ones that are good enough. Most writers are not even content with their published work, always seeing something more that could be done.
· If you can’t give up everything else to write – a party, a date, a chance to go out with friends – than you probably shouldn’t be writing in the first place.
· Always carry a pen and paper to jot down notes, thoughts, and observations. If you don’t have paper, use the back of your hand. That’s what skin is for.
· Do not start rewriting until you have a finished draft. If you start to rewrite before you get down a skeleton of a story, you’ll lose the essence of what you were trying to write in the first place.
· Listen, don’t speak. Observe, don’t look. A writer is that individual who sees everything but is ignored by everyone until someone picks up his book, poems, whatever. Then they know someone was in that room with them.
· Take criticism gracefully. Listen to everything. Apply only what you think is needed. And at the end of the day if it sits in a drawer, know that its completion was accomplished according to your standards and no one else’s.
· Don’t write for an audience. Writing is not meant to attract friends. Admirers, maybe. Enemies, certainly. But at the end of the day, your writing should stand on its own for its own.
· Edit your work with a hatchet with the intent to draw blood. No passage, no word, no character is sacred. Only the story is important.>
· Start your story as close to the end as possible. No one cares about how a watch is made, only the time it keeps.
· Write and read every day. Doesn’t matter what it is, or how good it is, but write. If you don’t write, you aren’t a writer, plain and simple.
· There are no final drafts, just ones that are good enough. Most writers are not even content with their published work, always seeing something more that could be done.
· If you can’t give up everything else to write – a party, a date, a chance to go out with friends – than you probably shouldn’t be writing in the first place.
· Always carry a pen and paper to jot down notes, thoughts, and observations. If you don’t have paper, use the back of your hand. That’s what skin is for.
· Do not start rewriting until you have a finished draft. If you start to rewrite before you get down a skeleton of a story, you’ll lose the essence of what you were trying to write in the first place.
· Listen, don’t speak. Observe, don’t look. A writer is that individual who sees everything but is ignored by everyone until someone picks up his book, poems, whatever. Then they know someone was in that room with them.
· Take criticism gracefully. Listen to everything. Apply only what you think is needed. And at the end of the day if it sits in a drawer, know that its completion was accomplished according to your standards and no one else’s.
· Don’t write for an audience. Writing is not meant to attract friends. Admirers, maybe. Enemies, certainly. But at the end of the day, your writing should stand on its own for its own.
· Edit your work with a hatchet with the intent to draw blood. No passage, no word, no character is sacred. Only the story is important.>
