Writing Advice
S37E7 – Those Who Can’t Do, Teach
The expression ‘Those who can’t do, teach’ is a curious one, because if you look at the world, you’ll see that teachers aren’t particularly worse at doing things than anyone else, so perhaps the expression might be better worded as ‘nobody can do anything.’ – Lemony Snicket
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S37E6 – Characters Must Be Practically Perfect in Every Way
Make him honest. I don’t mean ‘never fish for spare change in a pay phone honest.’ I mean ‘tell it like it is and own up to it’ honest. Readers will forgive a character for any number of flaws if the character is honest about who he is and what he’s doing. – K.M. Weiland
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S36 Bonus – The Dark Triad: Psychopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism
Hannibal Lecter: What if I did it for you?
Clarice Starling: Did what?
Hannibal Lecter: Harmed them, Clarice. The ones who’ve harmed you. What if I made them scream apologies? No, I shouldn’t even say it because you’ll feel – with your perfect grasp on right and wrong – that you were somehow accompli- even though you wouldn’t be.
– Hannibal
S33E7 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Backstory
A little story is supported by a lot of untold backstory. What they get is more than what they see. – Karen Lord
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S33E6 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Personalities and Descriptions
Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters. – Cassandra Clare
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S18E8 – Pearls from the Masters: Ernest Hemingway
All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. – Ernest Hemingway
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S18E7 – Pearls from the Masters: J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis
It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons. – J.R.R. Tolkein
It doesn’t matter what we write…, so long as we write continually as well as we can. – C.S. Lewis
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