A Writer Cares What Words Mean
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
8h ago
A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well, they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper. URSULA LE GUIN ..read more
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Leave Something Behind
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
1d ago
It is the deepest desire of every writer, the one we never admit or even dare to speak of: to write a book we can leave as a legacy. And although it is sometimes easy to forget, wanting to be a writer is not about reviews or advances or how many copies are printed or sold. It is much simpler than that, and much more passionate. If you do it right, and if they publish it, you may actually leave something behind that can last forever. ALICE HOFFMAN ..read more
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Why Begin to Write
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
2d ago
Why does one begin to write? Because she feels misunderstood, I guess. Because it never comes out clearly enough when she tries to speak. Because she wants to rephrase the world, to take it in and give it back again differently, so that everything is used and nothing is lost. Because it's something to do to pass the time until she is old enough to experience the things she writes about. NICOLE KRAUS ..read more
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Parentheses Abuse
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
3d ago
As a serial abuser of parentheses, I warn you against their overuse, particularly in the conveyance of elbow-nudging joshingness. One too many coy asides and you, in the person of your writing, will seem like a dandy in a Restoration comedy stepping down to the footlights and curling his hand around his mouth to confidentially address the audience. One rather needs a beauty mark and a peruke to get away with that sort of thing. BENJAMIN DREYER ..read more
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Tell a Story
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
4d ago
A writer’s greatest fear now is not that he’s going to be no good when he sits down to write. A writer’s greatest fear is that he’s going to be brilliant and that no one will read it, that no one can read it, that no one knows the difference because they read these stupid “How to write a screenplay” books. It’s made people into idiots. In the old days the writer’s greatest fear was always, this time out, it just isn’t going to happen. I just won’t have the stuff. Now the fear is that I’ll have it, but those little jerks from Harvard Business School won’t be able to understand it. Because these ..read more
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Respect Your First Draft
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
4d ago
Respect your first draft! It’s your child, just a little uncoordinated and unkempt. Don’t throw that baby out with the bathwater. The fact that you wrote it makes it significant. You must have been trying to say something, even though the manuscript may look like subliterate Sanskrit to you now. CAROLYN SEE ..read more
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Ask a Reading Friend to Look at It
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
6d ago
You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business.This friend should not be someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.  MARGARET ATWOOD ..read more
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Writing Advice
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
1w ago
Writing advice is neither good nor bad. It just is. It either works for you or it doesn’t. No one piece of advice is truly golden (with the exception of maybe “Finish your shit” and “Don’t be a dick”) — it’s all just that. Advice. It’s no better or worse than someone telling you what route to take to get to the zoo or what shirt to wear to that trailer park wedding. Like with every tool, pick it up, test its heft, give it a whirl. It works? Keep it. It fails? Fucking ditch it. Give writing advice no more importance than it is due. CHUCK WENDIG ..read more
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Spring Fire
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
1w ago
I became friendly with the editor, Dick Carroll, and he said, if you had a story to write, what would you write about? And I said, well, I just came from college. And before that I was in boarding school, and I had a lesbian experience in boarding school. And I think I would write about that. And he said, oh, that's a wonderful idea, but make it college. Because he said, grade-school people don't read our books. Make it college. And so then I wrote Spring Fire. He called it Spring Fire because James Michener had a novel out called The Fires Of Spring. And Dick thought, maybe people will confus ..read more
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Go Within
Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog
by Jon Winokur
1w ago
There is only one way: Go within. Search for the cause, find the impetus that bids you write. Put it to this test: Does it stretch out its roots in the deepest place of your heart? Can you avow that you would die if you were forbidden to write? Above all, in the most silent hour of your night, ask yourself this: Must I write? Dig deep into yourself for a true answer. And if it should ring its assent, if you can confidently meet this serious question with a simple, “I must,” then build your life upon it. It has become your necessity. Your life, in even the most mundane and least significant hou ..read more
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