Frankisms

“Only through the eyes and heart of a character does place come truly alive. — Donald Maass”

writing

“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all. — Voltaire”

writing

“Our best writing comes from pain. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Our characters are not us and therefore cannot always think and act and react the way we do. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“Our tendency is to tell people the facts. First, though, they must realize that they need these facts. — Chip Heath”

writing

“Passionate involvement is why writers write—and readers turn pages. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Pay attention not just to words as words, but also to the feelings they mirror when people use them. — Dwight V. Swain”

writing

“People don’t change until the cost of staying the same gets too high. — Jeff Gerke”

writing

“People don’t pause in a crisis to analyze or reflect. They do, however, see details in oddly exaggerated focus, and those will seem larger than life. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“People don’t read blog posts. They skim blog posts. — Thomas Umstattd”

writing

“Perfect characters are boring. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. — Antoine de Saint Exupery”

writing

“Personality assessment will help you direct your character’s behavior. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Plenty of great stories have been crafted around relatively mundane ideas. — Carole Bugge”

writing

“Poorly done, flashbacks completely derail a story. — Lisa Cron”

writing

“Prepare a schedule for your writing. Stick to it. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop. — Lynne Truss”

writing

“Read through your manuscript and study one character’s dialogue at a time to assure yourself each one has a distinctive voice. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“Readers are looking over your writing for their reasons not yours. — Joe Vitale”

writing

“Readers must care if they’re to keep reading. For readers to care, your characters—especially your central character, your hero or heroine—must care first. — Dwight V. Swain”

writing

“Reading is one of the hardest things we do. — Eugene Peterson, Author of The Message”

writing

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. — Richard Steele”

writing

“Reading to another human being is more naked than reciting to the wall. It closes the gap between what you believed you wrote and what you really wrote. It allows you to hear yourself, mirrored from the silent mind of the listener. — Natalie Goldberg”

writing

“Redline phrases and sentences that have that ring of familiarity to them. Then find a fresh way to get your point across. — Laurie Alberts”

writing

“Reducing your story to a single statement that defines the conflict, action, and goal can be a complex and time-consuming task. Don’t get frustrated. This process is worthy of whatever time and effort it takes, because the outcome is clarity. — Dara Marks”

writing

“Rejection is part of the business of writing—be dedicated and persevere. — Kirby Anderson, host of “Point of View” radio talk show”

writing

“Rejection letters are redirection letters, nothing to be ashamed of. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Rejection slips, the nemesis of all writers. The secret to not letting them get to us is to have realistic expectations when we begin. — Terry Burns”

writing

“Religious writing is often really badly written. — Eugene Peterson, Author of The Message”

writing

“Remember in your story that setting is the other character. — Rob Parnel”

writing

“Repeating the same thing will drive the reader crazy and they’ll leave you. Let your mother do something else, rather than cry each time. — Natalie Goldberg”

writing

“Replace “he felt happy” with signs that show happiness. — Sandra Glahn, editor in chief of Kindred Spirit magazine”

writing

“Research forms the core of a setting’s credibility. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Resist the urge to create characters with whom you are completely comfortable. You don’t want to create cookie-cutter versions of yourself. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“Runners stretch before a race. You can warm up with a few minutes of undirected, spontaneous writing. — Joe Vitale”

writing

“See how brief and direct you can make your summaries. The basic plot of a story (unlike its meaning) ought to be directly expressible in very few words, though playing it out in scenes may take a dozen or a thousand pages. — Ansen Dibell”

writing

“Semicolons are used “by those who can’t decide between commas and periods. Good writers … stay away from semicolons.” — Robert Pinckert”

writing

“Seventy-five percent of all revision is eliminating words already written. The remaining 25 percent is improving the words that remain. — Theodore A. Rees Cheney”

writing

“Show readers a character who is real. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“Simply saying that a character is sad and showing them crying is not enough to engage your reader’s emotions. We need to experience the pain along with the character. — Cheryl St.John”

writing