"Don't pause, don't judge, don't edit; don't stop — just keep writing." Not a direct quote, but that's what's stayed with me from the first "advice on how to write" book, Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" in the late '80s.
I was graduating from high school and while my writing got me through pretty much everything, I felt I probably should be "professional" about it.
So I got Writing Down the Bones, along with Strunk & White's Elements of Style and On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Both Elements and On Writing Well were good at clarifying common sense approaches, the Natalie Goldberg was actually the best about the mechanics and encouragement. I'm sure it's still worthwhile.
And yes, I have been loving "A Swim In the Pond in The Rain," in part, because it's a terrific little anthology of Russian short stories which I probably wouldn't be reading now if it hadn't been for Saunders.
Of course, the most lasting piece writing advice that came to me by surprise. It was in an ad for the International Paper Company written by Kurt Vonnegut, who was a particular favorite of mine from the mid-80s on. The ad was in Rolling Stone, I think.
"Sound like yourself" is probably the best part.
As for why I became a writer... I couldn't do — or wouldn't want to do? — anything else. (Though I did once aim for centerfield for the Yankees or being some kind of Brooklyn version of Elvis Costello, but no one wanted that and as I got on, neither did I.)
"Don't pause, don't judge, don't edit; don't stop — just keep writing." Not a direct quote, but that's what's stayed with me from the first "advice on how to write" book, Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" in the late '80s.
I was graduating from high school and while my writing got me through pretty much everything, I felt I probably should be "professional" about it.
So I got Writing Down the Bones, along with Strunk & White's Elements of Style and On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Both Elements and On Writing Well were good at clarifying common sense approaches, the Natalie Goldberg was actually the best about the mechanics and encouragement. I'm sure it's still worthwhile.
And yes, I have been loving "A Swim In the Pond in The Rain," in part, because it's a terrific little anthology of Russian short stories which I probably wouldn't be reading now if it hadn't been for Saunders.
Of course, the most lasting piece writing advice that came to me by surprise. It was in an ad for the International Paper Company written by Kurt Vonnegut, who was a particular favorite of mine from the mid-80s on. The ad was in Rolling Stone, I think.
"Sound like yourself" is probably the best part.
As for why I became a writer... I couldn't do — or wouldn't want to do? — anything else. (Though I did once aim for centerfield for the Yankees or being some kind of Brooklyn version of Elvis Costello, but no one wanted that and as I got on, neither did I.)
https://fs.blog/kurt-vonnegut-how-to-write-with-style/