This man makes me laugh out loud. Here's a quote for writers:
"It is a good exercise to try for once in a way to express any opinion one holds in words of one syllable. If you say 'The social ultility of the indeterminate sentence is recognized by all criminologists as a part of our sociological evolution toward a more humane and scientific view of punishment,' you can go on talking like that for ours with hardly a movement of the gray matter inside your skull. But if you begin, 'I wish Jones to go to jail and Brown to say when Jones shall come out' you will discover, with a thrill of horror, that you are obliged to think."
LOL! Simpler is better. Tight is right. Golden rules to write by.
In the last couple of days I have been distracted by Life (a shame, since my family is out of town and I haven't been distracted by family), so I am going to blog at a minimum for a while to make more progress
on the WIP.I have often compared writing a first draft to birthin' a baby. (Not that I've actually done that, but my friends have been more than willing to share their experiences.) In any case, labor is the hard part, the pushing to get from conceived idea to baby-on-the-table. Once that baby's on the table, I can clean him up, dress him up, even train him up before I send him off to my editor at "finishing school."
But getting through that labor is the hardest part.
Until next time--
One of the very first books I bought about writing was "Write Tight" by William Brohaugh. I read it right before my first book went to press, and was able to use a lot of what I learned as I went through the final edit - of course, much to my editor's chagrin! But, hey, it was tighter, and therefore read better. :) The book was a finalist for this year's Gold Medallions - that could have made the difference right there! Tight... is right.
ReplyDeleteThat picture is amazing. Great post too!
ReplyDelete