The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja.

Every now and then, I choose a passage of wisdom from someone who knows better and much more than I do about writing, life, the universe and/or everything.

Share and enjoy!

“Among the writers I have known, one habitually worked lying down in the dark, in a trailer with its windows painted black, dictating into a tape recorder. Another, when he wanted to think about a new novel, got on a bus to a destination about four hours away–it didn't matter where. When he arrived, he boarded another bus and rode back; by the time he got home, he would have the novel plotted out. Another meditated about a novel for three months, then sat down in a specifically designed cubicle, smaller than a telephone booth, and typed furiously for thirty hours straight. When he came out, the novel was done.

It follows that you must learn to write your own way, or you can never learn at all. I don't mean that you can do whatever you please; you still have to communicate with the rest of us. I just mean that nobody can tell you exactly how to do it. “Here are the rules,” I say; but when you are skilled enough, you will certainly bend some of these rules and break others.”

~ from Creating Short Fiction, by Damon Knight

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