I just found these cute prints on Etsy. What a neat way to upgrade scrapped books! (x)
Give me the complex character.
Give me the complex character. Give me the flawed character. Give me the character who fails, who falls, or who doesn’t try at all. Give me the character all the other characters hate. The one who’s broken, who’s cruel, who’s afraid. Give me the character who drinks too much or thinks too little; who has to fight to succeed if they do succeed in the end. Give me the character who I’d never want to be, and yet who’s the most like me.
Writing tip #36
Think of writing a lot like exercising your muscles. When you start, you’re going to need to shape and tone your writing skills and it’s going to be difficult, strenuous work. You type and note and create until your metaphorical writing muscles ache from the strain and then once you reach a level you’re satisfied with, you keep working, because if you don’t then you’re committing yourself to a life of being that one guy who goes to the gym once a month to do 5 minutes on the treadmill. That is, you might as well not bother at all.
written? kitten!: positive reinforcement at it’s finest and most adorable. for every 100 (or more) words written, you’re rewarded in the most charming fashion imaginable, so get writing.
Writing tip #35
It’s extremely easy to (unintentionally) write a fictional story all too autobiographical. Try making your main character drastically different from yourself in one way or another in order to free up your imagination and ensure you’re delivering crucial details and information to the reader.
esprit d’escalier: french term; when you think of the perfect comeback much too late.
Writing tip #34
Sketch your characters and actually create their physical identity for you to refer to. Sometimes you can create characters simply as they occur to you, at other times they’ll be variations of people you see, meet and know. Some of the best sketches are inspired by people you don’t really know but get a brief view of, like someone sitting in a restaurant or queuing in line at the supermarket.
❝ Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.
— AL Kennedy
(Source: amandaonwriting, via teachingliteracy)
Roddy Doyle - On Writing
1. Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.
2. Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph –
3. Until you get to Page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety – it’s the job.
4. Do give the work a name as quickly as possible. Own it, and see it. Dickens knew Bleak House was going to be called Bleak House before he started writing it. The rest must have been easy.
5. Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research.
6. Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg “horse”, “ran”, “said”.
7. Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It’s research.
8. Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments.
9. Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.
10. Do spend a few minutes a day working on the cover biog – “He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego.” But then get back to work.
This advice first appeared in The Guardian
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into , beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993.
(via imustgointhefogisrising)
Writing tip #33
People are going to criticize you, your ideas, your writing, and there is absolutely no avoiding that. You’re going to need to develop a hard outer-shell and take these things on the chin. Absorb only the hardships from which you can learn and teach yourself to cast any others aside.
