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Tag: authors

  • June 23rd, 2013 12:27pm

    1. Don’t think that being published will make you happy. It will for four weeks, if you are lucky. Then it’s the same old fucking shit.

    2. Hemingway was fucking wrong. You shouldn’t write drunk. (See my third novel for details.)

    3. Hemingway was also right. ‘The first draft of everything is shit.’

    4. Never ask a publisher or agent what they are looking for. The best ones, if they are honest, don’t have a fucking clue, because the best books are the ones that seemingly come from nowhere.

    5. In five years time the semi-colon is going to be nothing more than a fucking wink.

    6. In five years time every fucking person on Twitter will be a writer.

    7. Ignore the fucking snobs. Write that space zombie sex opera. Just give it some fucking soul.

    8. If it’s not worth fucking reading, it’s not worth fucking writing. If it doesn’t make people laugh or cry or blow their fucking minds then why bother?

    9. Don’t be the next Stephen King or the next Zadie Smith or the next Neil Gaiman or the next Jonathan Safran fucking Foer. Be the next fucking you.

    10. Stories are fucking easy. PLOT OF EVERY BOOK EVER: Someone is looking for something. COMMERCIAL VERSION: They find it. LITERARY VERSION: They don’t find it. (That’s fucking it.)

    11. No-one knows anything. Especially fucking me. Except:

    12. Don’t kill off the fucking dog.

    13. Oh, yeah, and lastly: write whatever you fucking want.

    — Matt Haig, “Some Fucking Writing Tips” (via booksandpublishing)

  • June 19th, 2013 10:29pm

    I hated high school. I don’t trust anybody who looks back on the years from 14 to 18 with any enjoyment. If you liked being a teenager, there’s something wrong with you.

    — Stephen King (via fearandhope)

  • May 13th, 2013 10:35am

    Rebloggable by request: Write People.

    neil-gaiman:

    Hi Mister Gaiman! I’m a young, 22 year old writer currently working on a novel that I intend to feature a strong, female lead; however, as a male, I often find myself out of my element. I was wondering if you had any suggestions—are there any books/authors you might recommend that you feel write strong females rather well? Preferably in the sci-fi and/or fantasy genres. Thanks!
    –eglouis

    I don’t know how to answer this, other than, go and talk to women. There are lots of books you can read with strong women characters but ten minutes talking to a woman will give you more than you’ll get from a hundred books, whether the books are written by men or by women.

    Talk to them about what they like and don’t like about the way they are represented in fiction. Talk about hopes and dreams.  Ask any interesting but embarrassing questions you’ve ever wanted to ask but were too male or too shy or too sensible to ask. 

    And then, when you’ve done all that, remember that the most important thing to do is to write people who feel like people, and that women are people.

    (Also, find out what the Bechdel test is. It is your friend.)

  • April 26th, 2013 1:48pm

    Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, “equality” is a disaster.

    — Robert A. Heinlein

  • April 9th, 2013 12:13pm

    My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication – it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness – it is all that I have – and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.

    — Franz Kafka

  • April 9th, 2013 11:21am

    Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate…but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

    — Franz Kafka