Solutions for Writers Quotes

“Wilmer Stone read our stories to us in a monotone as if he were reading from the pages of a phone directory. What we learned with each stab of pain was that the words themselves and not the inflections supplied by the reader had to carry the emotion of the story.”
― Sol Stein, Solutions for Writers: Practical Craft Techniques for Fiction and Non-Fiction

“He glared at me and said, "Look how you're dressed." I looked down and could see only what I had seen in the mirror that morning, the suit and shirt and tie that was customary for students at the time. "Your suit is blue," he said. "Your shirt is blue, your tie is blue. That's what's wrong with your writing." When my ordeal was over I slunk away from Goodman's cubicle to rethink the sameness of my writing and to learn the value of variety. It took some time for me to learn the other lesson, that a writer, shy or not, needs a tough skin, for no matter how advanced one's experience and career, expert criticism cuts to the quick, and one learns to endure and to perfect, if for no other reason than to challenge the pain-maker.”
― Sol Stein, Solutions for Writers: Practical Craft Techniques for Fiction and Non-Fiction