Summertime Quote-a-Rama

School is out and we're managing houseguests and gearing up for some summer travel. My writing schedule has been reduced to noodling in my journal over the past few days. I went through my old journals/commonplace books and found some quotes for inspiration. Here are a few in no particular order. Enjoy!

“How the first draft lists will show you how the story will blow.” ~ Carol Bly in The Passionate Accurate Story

“Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.” ~ John Gardner in The Art of Fiction

“I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add.” ~ Gore Vidal

 “Perfection is not very communicative” ~ Yo-Yo Ma

“Readers may savor nuance, unless it illuminates and deepens a clear-cut pattern they’ve been following, it’s nothing more than fancy window dressing in a vacant house.” ~ Lisa Cron in Wired for Story

“We write to taste live twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ~ Anais Nin

“Many writers practice “pain avoidance,” don’t.” ~ Carol Bly in The Passionate Accurate Story

“No two persons ever read the same book.” ~ Edmund Wilson

“Instead of thinking each draft has to be “it,” just try to make your story a little bit better than it was in the previous draft.” ~ LisaCron in Wired for Story

“All good fiction has moment-by-moment fascination. It has authority and at least a touch of strangeness. It draws us in.” ~ John Gardner in The Art of Fiction

“You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because there's too much going on that you can't take into account. You can, however, write a perfect sentence now and then.” ~ Gore Vidal

“Let go of the edge of the pool.” ~ me