Wednesday, February 2, 2011

harder than I thought

Write everyday. Don't ever stop. If you are unpublished, enjoy the act of writing - and if you are published, keep enjoying the act of writing. Don't become self-satisfied, don't stop moving ahead, growing, making it new. The stakes are high. Why else would we write? - Rick Bass

Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy manged 5000 words before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1ooo words a day - which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1000 words might well be rubbish - they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better. - Sarah Waters.

*circa 2002
Shilpa - Sir, I cannot write!
KTO, our God - Then write.
Shilpa - Sir?
KTO, also Dean of our Institute - Write. (finally looking at me) Write 100 words everyday.
Shilpa - (in shock) Ok.

Hhrrmph.

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