Sunday, July 8, 2012

This & That




Which author based one (or perhaps two, depending on your perspective) of his most famous characters on the fascinating case of William Brodie, respected Edinburgh businessman by day, leader of a gang of thieves by night?

     Robert Louis Stevenson
     Arthur Conan Doyle
     Daniel Dafoe
     James Fenimore Cooper




The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.


- John Campbell

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.

- Orson Scott Card

It is perfectly okay to write garbage--as long as you edit brilliantly.

- C. J. Cherryh

Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure than to write things that deserve to be read.

- Lord Chesterfield

Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

- Colette

13 comments:

  1. Ha! I love these. I sure hope I see 5 or 6 ideas today.... *gulp*

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    1. Hi Genevieve! Wouldn't that be nice? They aren't saying you have to do anything with those ideas yet...just SEE them...;0)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  2. Terrific quotes and all so very true!

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    1. Hi Donna! I think my favorite is from C. J. Cherryh!

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  3. 'He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to a dictionary' - William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway

    'Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?' Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner

    Charles Darwin stated; 'I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull it nauseated me' but my personal favourite comes from Robert Browning:

    'With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his.... It would positively be a relief to me to dig him up and throw stones at him'

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    1. Hi JP! I think I might like YOUR quotes better than MINE! ;0)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  4. Replies
    1. Hi Susanna! That's what I'm here for! ;~)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  5. Is the last line your own? I think I like it the best.

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    1. No, Pam, it was said by a lovely writer named Colette...

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  6. I'm lucky; I find ideas all over the place! I just need more time to write and see if they can turn into something more than an idea...

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    1. Hi, Marcy, and welcome to my blog! I'm the same way...I don't have many problems with finding ideas. It's the time thing that I have trouble with...or should I say the lack of time...lol...

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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