60 pieces of writing advice and life perspectives from famous writers

? William Faulkner

01. Read, read, read, read all kinds of books - junk, classics, good, bad, see what they are How to write it.

Learn like an apprentice learning from a master carpenter. read! You will understand why.

? Nabokov

? 02. You must read poetry to create prose.

Scott Fitzgerald

03. A writer can describe his experiences after 30, 40 and 50 years old, but his weighing and weighing of these experiences The judging criteria are set as early as the age of 25 and are difficult to change.

04. If you shape an individual first, you will find that you have created a type of person; if you shape a type of person first, you will find that you have created nothing.

05. Remove all exclamation marks. The exclamation point is like telling a joke to yourself and then laughing to yourself.

? Bernard Shaw

?06. Only a writer who takes himself and his time as the subject matter can write about all people and all times.

?Novakovic

?07. An incomplete memory, or a vague memory, can best inspire you to imagine, fictionalize, shape and create.

The missing parts of your memory will drive you crazy, crazy about living in a past you have constructed with your imagination.

? William Styron

? 08. The great works of any era are the product of someone's neurasthenia...

? For those who have been in fear For those who are in a state of depression, writing is a good remedy - for those who are frightened, writing is a cathartic outlet.

?Bacon

?09. Write down immediate thoughts. Those thoughts that do not seek self-satisfaction are often the most precious.

?Hemingway

10. I never have to choose a subject - on the contrary, my subject chooses me.

11. Writers should create alone. It is best not for them to meet before the work is completed, and even after the work is completed, they should not meet often.

Otherwise they are just like those writers in New York. Those people are like many earthworms in a bottle, desperately absorbing knowledge and nutrition from the contact with each other and the bottle where they sit.

Somerset Maugham

12. The more thoroughly you understand your characters, the better.

Gide

13. A bad novelist constructs characters, and he directs them to speak. Real novelists listen to their characters, observe their behavior, and hear their voices before they even get to know them.

14. Don’t worry too much about this stage of exhaustion of ideas. This is something you often encounter in your daily life.

? Tolstoy

? 15. Everyone’s character has many sides. Sometimes one side is shown, and sometimes the other side is shown, and a person often shows Not quite like himself, but still the same person.

Josh Emmons

16. Most fascinating characters want something. They want something they don’t have (or think they don’t have). And the effort they put into them makes them interesting and sympathetic.

But there are exceptions to this rule - some characters are content, don't want anything to change, and do things that have no appeal or any qualities that would make them attractive - and that's usually the case so.

Nyberg

17. Even extremely evil people need factors other than evil hearts to drive them. There must always be a convincing way to demonstrate "madness" in novels.

Jung

18. Unfortunately, all people are undoubtedly not as good as they imagine or want to be. Everyone has a dark side, and the less present it is during waking hours, the darker and more intense that side becomes.

John Stone

19. Once you understand that every sound and gesture indicates a status, then the way you see the world will be completely different, and this change Most likely forever.

It seems to me that truly skilled actors, directors, and playwrights have a good instinct about what governs relationships.

?Naipaul

?20. Whenever I have to write a novel, I always have to create a character with roughly the same background as myself. I've been thinking about this problem for many years. The answer is to face it bravely -

? Not to create a false character, but to create different stages of a character's growth.

? Forster

? 21. I am very sure that I am not a great novelist, because I only write about three types of people: one is myself in my eyes, One is the person who irritates me, and the other is the person I want to be.

? When you meet a truly great writer like Tolstoy. You will find that they can handle all types of people.

22. Let’s define plot. We have defined a story as a narrative of sequential events. Plot is also a narrative of events, but the emphasis is on cause and effect.

? "The king died and the queen died too", this is a story. "The king died and the queen died of grief", this is the plot.

? Welty

23. The dialogue should not only reveal what the speaker can reveal on his own, but also show what the speaker does not know but other characters know.

Shelly Jackson

24. If I knew what I was going to write in advance, I would have no interest in writing it.

?Pepcanos

25. I am more focused on finding characters. Once you do that, the book starts writing itself.

Doctorow

? 26. Writing is an adventure. You don't know anything at the beginning, but as the adventure unfolds you slowly understand...

Writing is like driving in the fog at night, you can only see where the headlights shine. But even then you can get there... Writing is a socially sanctioned form of schizophrenia.

Ray Cooney

27. The plot of a good comedy should also be able to be incorporated into tragedy. Most tragedies are about individual struggles against force majeure and efforts to defeat greater forces.

Added to this is the pain of the characters being helpless in the face of their own character weaknesses. These are also the themes of most of my revues.

? Raymond Chandler

?28. When hesitating, let a man break in with a gun.

?Hilary Mantel

? 29. Sometimes a few sentences can produce hundreds of sentences. I wrote these sentences down on cards, randomly putting them together in random order, until one day I could sort out the order and logic.

Then I'll re-splice them and put them roughly in the order I think they should be.

? Alexandre Dumas

30. The content of the opening chapter should be interesting but not boring; describe the action rather than introduce the background; introduce the characters after they appear instead of letting them appear after the introduction. Appear.

?Marquez

?31. The most difficult thing to write is the first paragraph. The first paragraph usually takes me a few months to write, and once I have it written, the rest is much easier.

The first paragraph solves a lot of problems with a book. It defines the theme, style and tone of the novel.

? Lawrence

? 32. If a book is thoroughly seen through, once it is understood and its meaning is fixed or determined, the book is dead.

A book only has life when it can touch us and touch us in different ways; it is alive only when we have new feelings every time we read it.

James Mitchell

? 33. I have never considered myself a great writer...but I am one of the world's greatest revisers.

Samuel Johnson

34. Re-read your work, and when you come across a passage that you think is particularly good, delete it.

Mark Twain

35. I noticed that you use ordinary, simple language and short, concise sentences. This is the way to use English -

It's the modern way and it's the best way. Stick with it and don't let the petty, flowery, long sentences creep in.

36. The success of a book does not depend on what you write, but on what you omit.

? 37. Don't say "that old lady screamed loudly" - let her do it herself, let her scream loudly.

?Chekhov

?38. Don’t tell me directly that the moon is shining, let me see the sparkle on the glass shards.

?39. When reading the proof, delete as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. Too many modifiers can make it difficult for readers to understand and tire them out.

? 40. When you describe painful and unfortunate people and want readers to sympathize with them, try to write more ruthlessly - that seems to set off their sadness more, and that kind of writing will Make the reader feel stronger.

Don’t sigh when a character cries in your story. Yes, be more ruthless...the more objective you are, the more impressive you will be on your readers.

41. It takes you five or six days to write a short story. During these days, you must think about it all the time, otherwise you will never write a good sentence.

42. You must completely abandon worries about success or failure. Don't think about those things. You should keep writing day after day, persevere, and be prepared for the inevitable mistakes and failures.

? 43. Everything I am writing is boring and cannot arouse any emotions in me, but all the stories that are still in my mind are very interesting and can push me to write and make me happy. I'm very excited.

? Borges

? 44. When I was young, I often looked for some novel metaphors. Later, I discovered that really good metaphors are almost always the same.

If you invent your own metaphors, they will only evoke momentary wonder while reading but will not evoke deeper emotions.

? Doctorow

? 45. Good writing will arouse readers' feelings: not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained on.

? Thoreau

?46. Who cares what a person's style is, because it is identifiable and as clear as his thoughts.

?George Orwell

? 47. Writers are conceited, selfish and lazy people, and their motivation for writing remains a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting, and internal struggle, like suffering from a very painful chronic illness.

?No one would do such a thing if they were not driven by a devil that they could not resist and cannot understand.

?Edgar Allan Poe

48. When I am happy or sad, I write. When I am hungry or thirsty, I write. When there are good or bad reviews, I write. In the sun and moonlight, I write. All I write is unnecessary stuff.

Faulkner

49. As far as I am concerned, all I need when writing is paper, tobacco, food and a little whiskey. Haruki Murakami

50. A quiet room, a clean desk, and preferably some Telemann music. Get up early to write and stop writing after sunset.

Capote

51. I am completely a lying writer. I can only think when I'm lying down, either in bed or on the sofa bed, with a cigarette lit and a cup of coffee handy. I have to blow smoke rings or drink something while I write.

Gaganas

? 52. Read aloud what you have written. I live alone, but my neighbors think this is a very busy house.

?Wilde

?53. I spent the whole morning revising the proof of a poem, and only deleted one comma. I added it back in the afternoon.

? Oates

54. You must not be afraid of suffering and develop a sense of humor. And after all, even William Faulkner considered himself a failed poet. Henry James returned to writing novels after failing in drama writing.

Lin Lardner was unable to write sad stories It was pop music that created perfect American prose, and Hans Andersen wrote perfect fairy tales only after he was frustrated in poetry, drama, and life.

Robert Benchley

55. I wrote for 15 years before I realized that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give up because I was already too famous by then.

Johnson

56. If a writer's work receives mixed reviews, this is a good thing for him. Reputation is like a badminton ball. If you play it while standing on one side, it will quickly fall to the ground.

To maintain balance, there must be someone playing on both sides.

Faulkner

57. Artists don’t have time to listen to what critics have to say. Those who want to be writers read reviews; those who want to write don't have time to read reviews.

Saroyan

58. Writers are spiritual anarchists, and so is everyone deep in their souls. He resented everything and no one.

He is always alone and will never follow what others say. A writer is a rebel who never stops.

Bainbridge

59. Looking at the room full of noisy children, I often think how nice it would be if there was a place where I could write quietly.

Now I realize that it is much easier to deal with the frustrations of everyday life than to be alone with myself all day long. Sometimes I want to find a job and then sneak home in the evening to write.

Joseph Heller

60. As a writer, I feel particularly fulfilled because I only write what I want to write, and I never have to deal with people I don’t like. *thing.

To me, the sign of success is doing what you want to do and hanging out with people you like.