Writing forward into 2022

 From 365 Affirmations for the Writer

January 11

Keeping a Reader’s Attention

The first 15 pages are critical—the reader demands a reason to keep reading.

― Jane Hertenstein

Review your current writing project. Does it grab your attention from the first sentence or pique your curiosity? Start at the beginning, making the first sentence lead to the next.

January 12

Keeping a Reader’s Attention

The prime function of the children’s book writer is to write a book that is so absorbing, exciting, funny, fast and beautiful that the child will fall in love with it. And that first love affair between the young child and the young book will lead hopefully to other loves for other books and when that happens the battle is probably won. The child will have found a crock of gold. He will also have gained something that will help to carry him most marvelously through the tangles of his later years.

— Roald Dahl, author of James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) Matilda (1988), amongst others

 

January 13

Keeping a Reader’s Attention

In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.

— Stephen King, from On Writing

 

Ask yourself—what is going to motivate a reader to spend a week reading this book?

Hint: write one true sentence

 

January 14

Writing Tips

Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.

— Ernest Hemmingway, from A Moveable Feast

 

January 15

When to Write

Discover the times when you’re most creative—mornings, nights, afternoons—and clear the time to work then. Many writers find the mornings are best, and the afternoons are only good for editorial corrections, or getting the washing done. Others can only work through the night, drunk.

— Deborah Moggach, British novelist and screen writer

 

What are your productive times? Do you need 2 – 3 uninterrupted hours or do you write in quick short bursts of energy? Some people need the pressure of deadlines in order to write. Write about what makes your spark plugs fire.

 

January 16

When to Write

When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.
― Ernest Hemingway, from the Paris Review, in an interview formalized into a series “The Art of Fiction”

 

January 17

Extracting Life

Writers are socially observant. We find people endlessly fascinating, and real life is mysterious. Sometimes it’s hard to stop staring at the strut and squawk of my fellow man. They can be quite inspiring. Sometimes it’s hard to stop talking to them to see what in the world they’re thinking.

­— Julianna Baggott, novelist representing a wide range

 

Sit on a park bench or go to a pedestrian mall or art museum and people watch. Take notes. People are extraordinary in many ordinary ways.

 

January 18

Find a Writing Community

No doubt the truth is that as often as not the writing community saves the writer by its folly. It is partly made up of fools: young innocents who’ve not yet had the experience of valuing anything other than writing, and maniacs who, having considered other things, think writing the only truly valuable thing the human mind can do.

— John Gardner, from On Becoming a Novelist

 

Make a list of writer’s conferences you’d like to attend. Polish a writing sample and apply during the cold winter months.

 

January 19

Why I Write

My own reasons for writing, for setting down the story, are to a large extent selfish. With each story—and by story I mean anything I write—I am trying simply to work something out for myself.

— Roxanna Robinson, New York Times, “Writers on Writing”

 

You’ve had a long day. The cat threw up on the new sofa, your boss needs to know if you’ll work Thanksgiving, Ebola is going around. And, btw, your ex is in town, the one you think you’re not quite over. Is there anything else bothering you that you might want to talk about?

 

January 20

Block

There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.
— Terry Pratchett

 

January 21

Block

I wrote a book. It sucked. I wrote nine more books. They sucked, too. Meanwhile, I read every single thing I could find on publishing and writing, went to conferences, joined professional organizations, hooked up with fellow writers in critique groups, and didn’t give up. Then I wrote one more book.
― Beth Revis, an American science fiction and fantasy writer

 

Do one thing right now that will enrich your professional career. Even if it’s just a list of books that are similar to your own. Read through the acknowledgements to find out who agented the book or who the editor was.