“…Storytellers are a lot like athletes. A great athlete makes everything look easy, as though his body just naturally moved that way. But in fact, he has so mastered the techniques of his sport that his technique has simply disappeared from view, and the audience sees only beauty.” ~from The Anatomy of Story by John Truby
We buy these difficult books because we feel that, while not very exciting, they are in some way good for us. It’s sort of literature-as-bran-flakes philosophy. If something is dry and unpalatable, it must be doing something good for our constitutions. ~Chris Baty, No Plot, No Problem
The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile. ~ Robert Cormier
This goes well with a bit of advice I came across a few years ago about not seeking perfection in your writing. It went something along the lines of telling yourself that writing is a low-risk activity compared to surgery, rocket science, and other endeavors where life literally hangs in the balance.
Every now and again, it can be liberating to remind yourself that no one ever died because of a horrible piece of writing, no matter how bad it is. 😀
