Category Archives: writing

“Many people with an idea want others to tell them their idea is worthy. Why is their approval of your idea necessary? That’s a sales question, not a writing question. If you want thousands to know you, that’s an ego problem, not a writing problem. I say, if you find it interesting, do it. If you find it worthwhile or meaningful, that’s enough. Your idea is good because it’s yours, and it means something to you. If even one person gets value from what you make that justifies your efforts. That person might be a close friend, a distant stranger, or possibly even yourself, years later, when you rediscover this amazing thing you made, amazing simply because you made it. Your book idea is good because it’s yours. Whatever it is it’s good enough to be the book that you write. If an idea lingers in your mind, and won’t leave you alone, just do it. The only chance for sanity is to get the idea out of your mind and down on paper or on a screen.”

—Scott Berkun

“Charles Frazier wrote Cold Mountain. He spent ten years writing it. Now, I resent the fact that his wife worked, and he could afford to take ten years to write a novel. My wife doesn’t work and I can’t afford to take ten years to write a novel that I haven’t even sold. So I resent that. And I didn’t like Cold Mountain. It wasn’t my kind of book. I don’t think writing about trees is that interesting. It’s a quest story, a string of pearls, and I didn’t believe any of it. However, it was a serious book. So I think that Charles Frazier deserves all the accolades and awards and money that he got for it, because it was a serious artistic effort. It didn’t appeal to me, I was a little personally resentful, but I admire that he had to delay his gratifications for ten years before anyone saw his book. He had to have the personal satisfaction of knowing, ‘Today I wrote a great scene about a flowing stream,’ and live with that. I can admire guys who are not my cup of tea as writers. But I’m furious with phonies.”

—Pat Jordan

“Read the clips first, then come up with questions, then do the interviews, transcribe the tapes, then read the notes and clips over again until I memorize them, then start outlining on a yellow legal pad of paper, like an artist making sketches before starting a painting. I’ll revise the outline again and again, just like you were taught in grammar school. Do that over and over until I find an outline I like. It’s a habit left over from baseball – as far back as when I played in Little League when I used to draw those stick figures that showed me how I was going to pitch the batter. Which doesn’t mean I’ll stick to it, it just means it’ll get me started writing. After I get the outline, I think for as long as it takes me, until I get the first line. I’ll memorize my notes and clips and then spend a week walking around the house jotting notes on how I want to begin it. Once I figure out how I’m going to begin it, the story is done.”

—Pat Jordan