Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.
– John Steinbeck
Tag: John Steinbeck
Quotable 297
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
– John Steinbeck
Quotable 110
I have written a great many stories and I still don’t know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances.
– John Steinbeck
Pen to Paper: Advice For Younger Writers
With school well underway across the land, here’s something for Catsignal’s younger readers and writers.
John Scalzi tweeted yesterday: “Just found a bunch of short stories I wrote when I was a teenager. Oh my. They are NOT good.”
This comment is virtually a follow-up to an essay he wrote in 2006 giving advice to teenage writers. While much writing advice is good for novice writers of any age, this piece is directed straight at the 13- to 19-year-old crowd. Keep reading past Number 1, no matter badly it annoys you. Scalzi hits various nails squarely atop their heads, and this is advice you can bank on.
Follow that up with wisdom from John Steinbeck and a variety of useful things from Ralph Fletcher. That’s enough for now; I don’t want to keep you from your homework.