Buck DoppStranger in Black Updated February 10, 2010
The dark figure walking briskly toward Chet Thompson had a cobalt- blue mohawk, chains and piercings shimmering in the sunlight, and rings in his nose, ears and eyebrows. Chet sat in his stalled Toyota Yaris—in the middle of nowhere—and thought the man dressed in black must be a Goth. The stranger was heading straight for his car! Chet started trembling and broke out into a cold sweat. Chet had returned from a walk on a wilderness trail and discovered his car battery was dead. Now what was he going to do about this fast approaching stranger?When the stranger in black, with the glistening jewelry radiating from his face, got close he motioned for Thompson to roll down his window. Chet hesitated--tried not to show his terror-- but finally rolled down the window with a shaking left hand.
“Are you okay?”
“My battery is dead. I must have left my lights on.” As soon as those words came out of his mouth, Chet was mad at himself for revealing so much. Now he worried that he had made himself vulnerable to a mugging.
“Open the hood and let me take a look.”
After a few minutes the man poked his head out from under the hood, “Now try it.”
The car started immediately.
“Your battery terminals were loose, that’s all.”
“Thank you so much,” was all Chet Thompson could get out before the man walked off in silence. ***
Jackie Collins has written 27 novels and sold 400 million of them. So how does she stay inspired?
According to "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" in the January 17, 2010, Parade Magazine:
"I just love creating characters...I think one of the reasons my books are so successful is because I write about people of all colors, ages, sexual orientations--and I love doing it.
Sex doesn't sell books;interesting characters do."
--Jackie Collins
Stephen King on How to Write.
(Excerpted from the Bottom Line Personal-June 1, 2002)
"He believes writing is a skill like any other. The only way to get better is to write regularly and a lot...
King writes 10 pages per day... What's important is setting a goal and sticking with it....
*Use the first words that come to mind... Simple words are better.
*Use short sentences. Not all sentences must be short--but it is a handy technique for keeping thoughts orderly and the pace marching forward....
*Choose the active voice. Active verbs give sentences clarity and strength....
*Avoid adverbs. Writing is often stronger without adverbs--descriptive words for verbs that usually end in -ly, such as firmly, quickly, totally, etc..
*Experiment with sentence fragments. They streamline narration... create clear images...and build tension.
James M. McPherson Professor of American History at Princeton University in the Preface to the "Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant," makes the point that General Grant used the same principle for writing his memoirs that he used for writing the terms of surrender to Robert E. Lee.
"When I put my pen to the paper I did not know the first word that I should make use of in writing the terms. I only knew what was in my mind, and I wished to express it clearly, so that there could be no mistaking it."
--U.S. Grant
"Here was the secret of Grant's remarkable success as a writer. No better advice could be given to any aspiring author."
--James M. McPherson
"Ernest Hemmingway was once challenged to tell a story in only six words. Papa came back swinging with 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.'"
--AARP July/August 2009
Taylor Swift's advice to
aspiring song writers:
“Write
your songs not for a demographic or for getting on the radio. Write your songs
for the person you’re writing that song about. When I sit down, I say to
myself, ‘Okay, who is this about? What would I say to him right now if he were
here?’
My favorite quotes from Ernest Hemingway on writing:
"All good
books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really
happened."
"A man's
got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book."
"I
learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there
was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at
night from the springs that fed it."
"If a
writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he
knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it
being above water."
"There
is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes
it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."
"There
is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
--Ernest Hemingway
From an article in the Wall Street Journal by Allen Barra, Wednesday, March 5, 2008:
"In 1946, Damon Runyon was dying of throat cancer and could scarcely speak. A magazine editor asked him who, in his opinion was the best young writer in New York. Runyon scrawled the name W.C. Heinz on a cocktail napkin and passed it to him. He had underlined Heinz's name three times....William Charles Heinz died last Thursday at age 93...."
From Jeff MacGregor in SI in March 2008:
"...he was a stern advocate for simplicity and understatement....His 1949 column from the New York Sun, "Death of a Racehorse," is the Gettysburg Address of sportswriting. A run of words so slender and moving that nothing can be added or taken from it:
'There was a short, sharp sound and the colt toppled onto his left side, his eyes staring, his legs straight out, the free legs quivering.
'Aw-----." someone said.
That was all they said.'
John Grisham:
"Non-fiction is too much work. I'm too lazy to do all the research. I actually never thought about (writing non-fiction) but when I saw the story, ("The Innocent Man"), I knew I had to write it."
On putting Christian sentiments in his books:
"I'm a Christian, and those beliefs occasionally come out in the books. One thing you really have to watch as a writer is getting on a soapbox or pulpit about anything. You don't want to alienate readers."
(From Time, February 4, 2008)
On writing memoirs from author Bill Novak:
Tell the truth. Be as honest as you can.
It is better to write as much as possible about a few things than to write a few things about too much.
Decide who you are writing for, your family or for the general public.
Write it so the reader can learn life lessons from your experiences.