ON WRITING WELL
I recently had a discussion with some writer friends about the challenges of lifting your writing out of mediocrity. What, indeed, sets your story apart from the millions of stories that writers all over the world are creating every single day? For starters, my friends suggested that your story and your voice is unique. Others noted that it is the process of rewriting that brings out the elegance and shine of your prose. Our discussion inspired me discover what literary giants of the past had to say on the subject of good writing. I’m also interested in what you think.
The most essential gift for a good writer is an essential, built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar, and all great writers have had it. –Ernest Hemingway
I try to leave out the parts that people skip. –Elmore Leonard
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say but what we are unable to say. –Anais Nin
I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter. –James Michener
The difference between the right word and the almost write word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.–Mark Twain
You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit let the fire show through the smoke. — Arthur Polotnik
