Be Kind, Even to Your Characters

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

— Philo (or Plato, or Others)

I love this quote.  I hadn’t thought about it, in the past, but this sentiment is also applicable to the characters we create.  Be kind to them, as they are carrying great burdens and fighting battles that we have imposed. Constant conflict and tension is exhausting, the least we can do is share a little bit of kindness.

Failure to Write

You fail only if you stop writing.

I’ve written about 2,000 short stories…and I feel I’m still learning.

-Ray Bradbury

Read a Lot of Bad Stuff

If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing.  I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too.  It’s very encouraging.

-Edward Albee

Trash Talking Other Books

This was shared at a great writing workshop last week:

If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing.  I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too.  It’s very encouraging.

– Edward Albee

I couldn’t agree more.  It was, after all, a terrible book that made me think, hey I can do something marginally better than this garbage!  I’m still working on it – even trash takes time.