Winston Churchill:
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.
The monster is back, patient readers, but it only has a few hit points left.
Related: Sorry I Haven’t Posted: Inspiring Apologies from Today’s World Wide Web
3 responses so far ↓
1 Adam // Sep 21, 2010 at 9:07 pm
“Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggest cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings)…I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: “Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.” – Steve King
2 Rob // Sep 22, 2010 at 8:10 am
It’s good advice. That must be why Steve writes such short books.
3 Adam // Sep 23, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Of course, otherwise they’d be 10% less short!