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I am a fiction writer, ghostwriter, writing coach, and collaborator. Get in touch or feel free to continue browsing. 

 

Fiction writing advice that I absolutely love.

“People who want to write either do it or they don’t. At last I began to say that my most important talent—or habit—was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It’s amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up.” —Octavia Butler from the afterword of her essay, “Furor Scribendi.”

“The good piece of writing startles the reader back into Life. The work—this Other, this other thing—this false life that is even less than the seeming of this lived life, is more than the lived life, too. It is so unreal, so precise, so unsurprising, so alarming, really. Good writing never soothes or comforts. It is no prescription, neither is it diversionary, although it can and should enchant while it explodes in the reader’s face.” —Joy Williams from her essay, “Uncanny The Singing that Comes from Certain Husks.”

George Saunders from A Swim in a Pond in the Rain on writing the stories only you can write:

“I like what I like, and you like what you like, and art is the place where liking what we like, over and over, is not only allowed but is the essential skill. How emphatically can you like what you like? How long are you willing to work on something, to ensure that every bit of it gets infused with some trace of your radical preference? 

“The choosing, the choosing, that’s all we’ve got.” 

Advice from Neil Gaiman about how to be a writer:

“Write the ideas down. If they are going to be stories, try and tell the stories you would like to read. Finish the things you start to write. Do it a lot and you will be a writer. The only way to do it is to do it. 

“I’m just kidding. There are much easier ways…” …continue reading…

And finally, words of wisdom from Leonard Cohen:

Ring the bells that still can ring;

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack, a crack, in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

That’s how the light gets in.