Welcome to the fourth volume of Cliff Notes.
Hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed scouring the Internet for them.
As always you can check out Brain Pickings and Advice To Writers. Two of the sources where I find the advice that I post. Another great source is Paris Review. They've got tons of great interviews and quotes from authors. You can get lost there for hours browsing through their archives. It's a rich source of information.
On to the cliff notes . . .
But first lets play something on the juke box . . .
Cliff notes on dialogue from John Steinbeck:
"If you are using dialogue -- say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech."
Cliff notes on truth in writing from Tennessee Willaims:
"When I write I don't aim to shock people, and I'm surprised when I do. But I don't think that anything that occurs in life should be omitted from art, though the artist should present it in a fashion that is artistic and not ugly. I set out to tell the truth. And sometimes the truth is shocking."
Cliff notes on ethics in writing from Ursula K. Le Guin:
"There's a kind of ethical question when you're writing for kids. YOu have to stand back from the work and say, 'Could this scare an eight-year-old? Could it do any harm?' The editors don't do that for you. With children's literature, the writer has to be in the foreground. There's a cruel streak to Roal Dahl. One of my daughters was very fond of his earlier books. I was very happy when she outgrew him, I have to say. There's something a little gross and a little cruel in his work. Some of the books, like the Goosebumps books, look sort of gross or dumb, but they're harmless, I think kids need a lot of dumb stuff. Roughage in the diet."
Cliff notes on writing a novel from Joe Hill:
(This quote came from Joe's Tumblr page Joe Hill's Thrills. Check it out.)
"The first is to stop thinking about writing a novel that is going to take you two years. That's too overwhelming. Instead, just focus on what you're going to do today, which is write another great scene: a scene that does something unexpected and fun and is going to want to make people read on. Something that explores the characters in a way that's real but surprising. Don't write about someone waking up, unless they're waking up to find a dead body next to them. Don't write about someone making breakfast unless there's a head in the fridge . . . or his wife is going to call halfway through his eggs to leave his drunk and lazy ass for an alligator wrestler and part-time evangelist preacher. That would be a great scene to write and that's all the job comes down to. Your job is to write one great scene . . . and then write another great scene. When you have a whole stack of them, it's a short story, or a novel."
Come back next week and I'll have the rest of the Joe Hill quote for you.
But before you go, post your favorite writing advice in the comments.
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