Quote of the Day (22/08/08)
“IÂ can’t understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.”
Fred Allen (US radio comedian, 1894 - 1956)
[Quote supplied by the Quotations Page]
I’m starting to lean towards this point of view, considering I’ve read four novels this week and only advanced my own half-written novel by a few hundred words.
I need to keep reminding myself why I want to finish writing this novel, and it’s not for fame and fortune (nice as those would be); it’s because I have a story to tell and I want to share it. Eventually. Some day.
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on August 22nd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Excellent quote! It certainly puts things into perspective after a few hours’ slaving over ‘put a comma in…no take it out…no leave it in’ and such things.
The solution to finishing your novel is obvious: someone needs to lock you in a room with NO BOOKS.
My solution is to cut off my internet access.
We’re doomed.
Susan’s last post: Finding Inspiration in Kick-Ass Haiku Blogging
on August 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I wish I could provide you with some wise words of wisdom. Every single one of my novels has had a very different genesis. This current one has been the hardest by a long chalk and it’s the only one I had to rewrite. And by that I mean abandon everything that’s gone before, strip back to the basic concept and start again. I’ve been at this for about three years and I’ve still not reached the half-way point. I’m not worried especially because I don’t have anyone shouting at me to get the thing done. I took a two year break in the middle of the third and wrote nothing but short stories. They all got done and I have to believe this one will get done in its own good time. Anything else I could offer would sound clichéd. I would cut down on the reading mind.
on August 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
No books? Cut down on the reading? What are you trying to do to me?!!!
Actually, it probably wouldn’t be the worst of ideas. If I have no books, then I have to resort to my own imagination. I might do that this coming week (another one in a hotel) - just take one to read on the bus, so that I have to entertain myself in other ways in the evenings - and I don’t really watch TV so that’s not a distraction.
Hmmm. I just really need to get stuck in to writing, don’t I?
on August 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
can definitely relate.
Sat down to work on my novel this morning…but then there was Gather…and entrecard and my blog and googlenews and….
flit’s last post: Bookworms R’ Us
on August 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Me too - can relate I mean. Especially with flit.
Jean’s last post: Menorcan Horses
on August 23rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Here’s an idea - cut down by one book a week and use that extra time to pound out about 1,000 words. They don’t have to be great words or even good words. Just move forward.
Then tell me how you do it because I’ve yet to finish any of my manuscripts!
Lori’s last post: The Friday Crunch
on August 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
If you have an idea to work on, you’re already halfway there. Just remember that. I’m firmly convinced that the worst kind of writers’ block is the kind where you just don’t have anything to say. Keep working. I have no doubt you’ll get there.
Fiendish’s last post: Last of the Summer Whine
on August 25th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
With publishing changing so fast, it’s next to impossible to put out a novel for the simple hope of getting rich. You’ve got to be doing it for the right reason — to tell your story.
Don’t stop trying to get it out there.
Susan Helene Gottfried’s last post: Susan’s Inside Writing: How I Met My…
on September 6th, 2008 at 12:11 am
It takes a year to write a novel, but only a day to read one. Wonderfull quote.
Book Calendar’s last post: Warren Buffet Recommendations, Good Morning