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161 " Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-the-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered anyway. "
― Stephen King , On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
162 " I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: “Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck. "
163 " Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought. If your work consists only of fragments and floating clauses, the Grammar Police aren’t going to come and take you away. Even William Strunk, that Mussolini of rhetoric, recognized the delicious pliability of language. “It is an old observation,” he writes, “that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric.” Yet he goes on to add this thought, which I urge you to consider: “Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules. "
164 " Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway "
165 " If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it? "
166 " I was built with a love of the night and the unquiet coffin, that's all. "
167 " The most important things to remember about backstory are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn't very interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don't get carried away with the rest. Life stories are best received in bars, and only then an hour or so before closing time, and if you are buying. "
168 " One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, working for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed, and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed. "
169 " Los libros son la magia más portátil que existe. "
170 " One either absorbs the grammatical principles of one’s native language in conversation and in reading or one does not. What Sophomore English does (or tries to do) is little more than the naming of parts. "
171 " Where do I get my ideas? The more pertinent question is…how do I make them stop? "
172 " You can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up. "
173 " Kill your darlings. "
174 " The pain was brilliant, like a poisonous inspiration. "
175 " Boredom can be a very good thing for someone in a creative jam. "
176 " If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, "
177 " When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. "
178 " if you continue to write fiction, every character you create is partly you. "
179 " TV came relatively late to the King household, and I’m glad. I am, when you stop to think of it, a member of a fairly select group: the final handful of American novelists who learned to read and write before they learned to eat a daily helping of video bullshit. This might not be important. On the other hand, if you’re just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television’s electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea. "
180 " all novels are really letters aimed at one person. "