Walk briskly and it will improve your circulation and your brain will remember the basics of good writing: Cut to the chase. Cut the introductions. Cut the agonized introspection.
When in doubt, write something that is fun. Read your work out loud: It's the automatic b.s. detector. Write on a computer if you must but correct by hand on a typescript with a yellow No. 2 lead pencil.
John Berryman once said that if you need to know if it's good or not, maybe you shouldn't be a writer, and now, in the last week of work, I take those words to heart.
Author
Garrison Keillor's down to earth advice on writing as he comes to the end of yet another novel. From the
Herald Tribune yesterday. (And thanks Datuk Shan for the link.)
3 comments:
Thanks for the link Sharon. I feel humbled now and know that I do not need to shoot myself when something reads as " A physical examination showed massive enlargement of lover and ascites."
When it should have read as 'enlargement of liver'.
Love
Sham
"massive enlargement of the lover" ... hmmm, sounds like wishful thinking, sham
"Cut to the chase. Cut the introductions. Cut the agonized introspection."
Advice worth its weight in gold. Has Kiran Desai seen this by any chance?
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