Rick Killian
Lessons from a ghost . . .Read moreLearning to write is learning to think.
You don’t know anything clearly unless you can state it in writing.—S. I. Hayakawa
The 7 benefits of good editors (part two)
(If you haven't read part one, you can click here.) There’s no question about the value of a “second set of eyes” looking over your manuscript, because we all know we can suffer from being a bit “blinded by our own brilliance” when it comes to writing. Having someone...
Read moreShow up. Show up in front of the computer or the typewriter. And if I show up long enough—it happens.
—Isabel Allende
The 7 benefits of good editors (part one)
What good is an editor? I hate to admit it, but even as an editor and writer myself, I think it’s a valid question. Editors are expensive. In the overall process of traditional publishing, I wouldn’t be surprised if the editorial portion of the cost of a book didn’t...
Read moreI have advice for people who want to write.
I don’t care whether they’re 5 or 500.
There are three things that are important:First,
if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair.And second,
you need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. It’s the great writers who teach us how to write.The third thing
is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour—write, write, write.―Madeleine L’Engle
What’s killing your writing?
Carbon monoxide is deadly—mainly because it is fast. Relatively small amounts are fatal because it bonds with hemoglobin over 200 times faster than normal oxygen molecules. If there is enough in the air, every carbon monoxide molecule will bond with your blood because...
Read moreLet’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.
Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.—Steven King
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