Writing: Withhold Information From Your Readers

Withhold information from your readers. When writing fiction, only give readers the information they need to know in the moment. Ernest Hemingway’s iceberg theory in writing is to show your readers just the tip of the iceberg. The supporting details—like backstory—should remain unseen, just like the mass of an iceberg under the water’s surface. This prevents readers from getting overwhelmed with information and lets them use their imagination to fill in the blanks.

Learn more:

Ernest Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory” or "Theory of Omission" of Writing

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Writing Quotes by Raymond Carver: Write About Commonplace Things

It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things—a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring—with immense, even startling power.

— Raymond Carver

(May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988)

Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. He is considered to be amongst America's greatest writers. Wikipedia 

  Buy Raymond Carve's Books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Raymond Carver: Some Writers Have a Bunch of Talent

Some writers have a bunch of talent; I don’t know any writers who are without it. But a unique and exact way of looking at things, and finding the right context for expressing that way of looking, that’s something else. . . . Every great, or even every very good writer, makes the world over according to his own specifications.

— Raymond Carver

(May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988)

Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. He is considered to be amongst America's greatest writers. Wikipedia 

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Writing Quote by Oscar Wilde: There is No Such Thing as a Moral or an Immoral Book

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

— OSCAR WILDE

(October 26, 1854 – November 30, 1900) 

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, the early 1890s saw him become one of the most popular playwrights in London. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts in "one of the first celebrity trials", imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46. Wikipedia 

     
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Writing Quote by Oscar Wilde: The Artist Is The Creator

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.

No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. 

Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.

When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

— OSCAR WILDE

(October 26, 1854 – November 30, 1900) 

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, the early 1890s saw him become one of the most popular playwrights in London. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts in "one of the first celebrity trials", imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46. Wikipedia 

     
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Writing Quote by Ernest Hemingway: Don’t Think About Your Writing When You’re Not Writing

“It was in that room too that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it and at the same time I would be listening to other people and noticing everything.”

— Ernest Hemingway

(July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) 

 Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. Wikipedia

Ernest Hemingway books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Ernest Hemingway: Don’t Judge Your Writing Until the Next Day

“After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.”

— Ernest Hemingway

(July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) 

 Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. Wikipedia

Ernest Hemingway books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Shannon Hale: Becoming a writer sounds more like a mental illness than a professional choice.

"Really, becoming a writer sounds more like a mental illness than a professional choice."

 
  — Shannon Hale

(Born: January 26, 1974)

Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Shannon Hale: Writing a First Draft

"Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles."

 
  — Shannon Hale

(Born: January 26, 1974)

Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Christina Lauren: Write What Makes You Excited

"Run your own race. Don't worry about how fast someone else writes, how much another author makes, how many followers another author has. Write what makes you excited, and the enthusiasm will come through on the page."

— Christina Lauren

Christina Lauren is a New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling American author duo of contemporary fiction, teen fiction and romance novels. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Devi S. Laskar: Ignore the Naysayers

"Don't give up, and don't lose your stubborn belief that you have a story worth telling. I've had so many people tell me over so many years that I didn't have the qualities needed to be a writer. All of my writer friends and I have one thing in common: We didn't listen to the naysayers. We kept writing. And eventually we have all been published."

— Devi S. Laskar

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Writing Quote by Michael Moorcock: Bad Writer Big Ideas

"I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas."

 
 — Michael Moorcock

(born 18 December 1939)

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer and musician, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy since the 1960s and '70s Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Michael Moorcock: Fiction Writing Techniques

"Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution."

 
 — Michael Moorcock

(born 18 December 1939)

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer and musician, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy since the 1960s and '70s. Wikipedia

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ProWritingAid's Crime Writer’s Week Free Online Workshop

ProWritingAid is running their first ever Crime Writer's Week from April 19-23. All participants will be able to take part in a range of events to help them write an unforgettable thriller.

ProWritingAid's Crime Writer’s Week is a series of events all geared towards crime writers. Whether you're crafting a police procedural, a whodunnit, or a good old-fashioned mystery, you'll learn how to keep readers turning pages.

FREE!!!

Crime Week Full Schedule

Scroll down for more detail about each event.

Monday, April 19

The Elements of a Crime Novel: From Planning to Plot (12 PM ET / 5 PM UK)

Presented by: Leigh Russell, Bestselling Author

Every genre requires a unique approach, and crime writing is no different. In this session, internationally bestselling crime author Leigh Russell will take you through the key elements of the crime writing process.

Crime Writing: Secrets of the Genre (2 PM ET / 7 PM UK)

Presented by: Anne Hawley and Rachelle Ramirez Pages & Platforms

Do you have an idea for a mystery, heist, or puzzle story but don’t yet know how to structure it? Got some bad deeds, clues, and some scenes that don’t really work together or entertain? Want to introduce moments of heightened danger and plot twists into your writing? You’re in the right place. In this webinar, you’ll learn the crime story essentials so that you can create intrigue for your readers and have them recommending your story to others.

Interview with Vaseem Khan (4 PM ET / 9 PM UK)


Interviewed by Hayley Milliman, Head of Education at ProWritingAid

Vaseem Khan is the award-winning author of two crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series, and the Malabar House historical crime novels. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller, now translated into 15 languages, and introduced Inspector Chopra of the Mumbai police and his sidekick, a one-year-old baby elephant. Khan works at University College London’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science.

Monday's Networking Event: Speed Dating (5 PM ET / 10 PM UK)


Join us on Monday night to meet your fellow Crime Writer's Week participants! You'll get to match with other participants for five minutes.

Tuesday, April 20

Crime Scene Management, Police Interviewing and Covert Tactics (12 PM ET / 5 PM UK)

Presented by: Graham Bartlett, Police Advisor

Retired detective, bestselling author and advisor to over eighty crime novelists and TV writers, Graham Bartlett will help your WIP ooze authenticy. Learn how police use mobile phones, vehicles, CCTV, and social media in their investigations, as well as authentic police interview techniques (avoiding the good cop/bad cop trope) that are used by police today. Getting police tactics right is essential if you want to write a realistic and sizzling crime novel.

Insider Advice on Getting Published (2 PM ET / 7 PM UK)

Presented by: Katherine Armstrong, Deputy Publishing Director, Crime & Thriller Fiction, at Simon & Schuster

The session is intended to demystify the publishing process for writers, give advice on how to get published and answer any questions you might have about traditional publishing.
How to Edit Your Crime Novel With ProWritingAid (4 PM ET / 9 PM UK)

Presented by: Hayley Milliman, Head of Education at ProWritingAid

It doesn’t matter how many hours you spent meticulously crafting your crime novel’s plot. If your writing isn’t clear and effective, your readers won’t engage with it. That’s where editing technology can help. In this workshop, we’ll dive into how to use ProWritingAid to make key edits to your crime manuscript.

Tuesday Night's Networking Event: Online Escape Rooms (5 PM ET / 10 PM UK)


Play detective and solve the clues in our virtual escape room. Will your team make it out?

Wednesday, April 21

The History & the Mystery: Selecting and Creating an Authentic Setting for Crime Fiction (10 AM ET / 3 PM UK)

Presented by: Fiona Veitch Smith

Fiona Veitch Smith is the author of the Poppy Denby Investigates novels, Golden Age-style murder mysteries set in the 1920s (Lion Fiction). Fiona will give tips on how to research and build an historical fictional world and the importance of selecting the right investigator within the constraints and possibilities of the period.

Thriller Writer Panel Discussion (12 PM ET / 5 PM UK)

Presented International Thriller Writers (ITW)

Award-winning author Alexia Gordon will be joined by four of her fellow International Thriller Writer's Association members for a lively discussion around the joys and pains of writing thrillers. Expect great tips and life lessons from these popular writers as they discuss their writing journeys so far.

Moderated by Alexia Gordon

Panelists: Steve Berry, Lisa Gardner, Jennifer Hillier, Ian Rankin, Karin Slaughter
Common Police Mistakes Made by Crime Writers and How to Avoid Them (2 PM ET / 7 PM UK)

Presented by: Graham Bartlett, Police Advisor

Graham will be back again to share the most common errors that authors get wrong in their crime novels. Who really runs a homicide investigation? When does a missing person report become a murder enquiry? Find out the answers to these and many more bloopers that could spoil your next bestseller.
Wednesday's Networking Event: Crime Fiction Trivia (5 PM ET / 10 PM UK)

Join us to play pub trivia: crime author edition in small groups in breakout rooms.

Thursday, April 22

Author Interview: Nadine Matheson (9 AM ET / 2 PM UK)


Nadine Matheson has always been passionate about writing and storytelling. She was born and lives in London and is a Criminal Solicitor. In 2016, she won the City University Crime Writing Competition and completed the Creative Writing (Crime/Thriller Novels) MA at City University of London with Distinction in 2018.

Her crime novel, The Jigsaw Man, was published by HQ earlier this year.

Debut Dagger Awards Long List Announcement (11 AM ET / 4 PM UK)

Presented by: The Crime Writers' Association

For over two decades the CWA has been encouraging new writing with its Debut Dagger competition for unpublished writers. The submissions are judged by a panel of top crime editors and agents.

How to Market Your Self-Published Crime Novel (12 PM ET / 5 PM UK)

Presented by: Nick Stephenson, Crime Author and Founder of Your First 10k Readers

Marketing your book comes down to mastering three key things: traffic, conversions, and scaling up. With the right systems in place for these three things, you can grow your readership and sales without spending your entire day 'worrying about marketing'. Join USA Today Bestselling author Nick Stephenson as he breaks down some real-world results using examples from his Crime/Thriller series (and others too) and shows you how to find your first 10,000 readers by implementing these three core strategies.

Interview with Fiona Cummins (2 PM ET / 7 PM UK)

Interviewed by: Lisa Lepki, CMO at ProWritingAid

Fiona Cummins is the award-winning author of Rattle, The Collector and The Neighbour. Her work has received widespread critical acclaim from authors including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Lee Child. We’ll be chatting to her about breaking into the world of crime writing, and what it’s like to see her fourth book, When I Was Ten, being adapted for television.

Writing During Hard Times (4 PM ET / 9 PM UK)

Presenter: Michael La Ronn, Author and Founder of Author Level Up

Find out how to thrive as a writer no matter what life throws your way. Life happens. When it does, will you be able to keep writing and publishing books? Writing in Hard Times will help writers stay productive, using the basic principles of disaster planning to help them survive hard times such as: recessions, pandemics, injuries, illness, natural disasters, and much more.

Thursday's Networking Event: Collaborative Writing (5 PM ET / 10 PM UK)

Join us as we create a short crime story in round robin small groups.

Friday, April 23

Get access to the final day of Crime Writer’s Week with your ProWritingAid Premium license. We’ll be hosting an interview with bestselling author Peter James, an editing deep dive, and a Q+A with a police adviser. Don't miss out!
The Three Stages of Editing Your Crime Manuscript (9 AM ET/ 2 PM UK)

Presented by: Hayley Milliman, ProWritingAid's Head of Education

As nice as it would be, writing your crime novel isn’t over when you type "The End." In fact, the actual work is just beginning. During the editing process, your novel will go from rough first draft to thrilling final manuscript. In this workshop, Hayley will walk you through the most important edits you should make to your manuscript to ensure it’s publish-ready.

Interview with Peter James (11 AM ET / 4 PM UK)

Interviewed by: Lisa Lepki, CMO at ProWritingAid

Peter James has become synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, and has won over 40 awards for his work and achieved 17 Sunday Times Bestsellers to date. Learn from the master what it takes to write gripping crime novels that keep readers hooked.

Police Advisor Q&A (1 PM ET / 6 PM UK)

Presented by: Graham Bartlett, Police Advisor

This is your chance to bring YOUR questions about police work and crime scene investigations to Graham Bartlett, retired detective, best selling author and advisor to over eighty crime novelists (including Peter James).
Meet Fellow Crime Writers at Networking Events

We will also be hosting daily networking sessions with fun activities all based around your love of crime fiction.

Monday Night: Speed Dating

Join us on Monday night to meet your fellow Crime Writer's Week participants! You'll get to match with other participants for five minutes.

Tuesday Night: Online Escape Rooms

Play detective and solve the clues in our virtual escape room. Will your team make it out?

Wednesday Night: Crime Fiction Trivia

Join us to play pub trivia: crime author edition in small groups in breakout rooms.

Thursday Night: Collaborative Writing

Join us as we create a short crime story in round robin small groups.

Writing Quote by David Morrell: Writers Need to be Tough

Writers need to be tough. This is not for the weak of will. And we have to realize that, yeah, it's never good enough. It's not like fixing a car where it's precise and we know what the end result will be definitively.

 

 ~ David Morrell 

(born April 24, 1943) 

 David Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, later adapted as the 1982 film of the same name, which went on to spawn the successful Rambo franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 30 languages. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by David Morrell: When Writing be Yourself

When I teach writing, I have a mantra: 'Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.'

 

 ~ David Morrell 

(born April 24, 1943) 

 David Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, later adapted as the 1982 film of the same name, which went on to spawn the successful Rambo franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 30 languages. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Nathan Leslie: Writing Quality Flash Fiction

To write quality flash fiction one needs to actually embrace the concept of the vignette, to loosen one’s bond to the “tightly” plotted story concept… Every word bears weight. Thus, lyrical writing tends to work well in this form. 

 –Nathan Leslie 

 
That “V” Word, quoted from The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (p 10).

Contents

• In defense of the exercise : You and the piano bench / Pamela Painter
• Contemporary and historical roots of flash fiction : That "v" word / Nathan Leslie
• Old wine in new bottles? Flash fiction from contemporary China / Shouhua Qi
• The myth-ing link (or, linking up to myth) / Pamelyn Casto
• Flash fiction from embryo to (very short) adult / Tom Hazuka
• Finding freedom and feeling in the form : "Cheers," (or) how I taught myself to write / Jayne Anne Phillips
• Great thoughts / Stuart Dybek
• Beginnings and endings : Titled : the title : a short story story's own short short storty / Michael Martone
• Fireworks and burnt toast : the process of opening up your writing / Vanessa Gebbie
• Smart suprise in flash fiction / Jennifer Pieroni
• Making flash count / Randall Brown
• Imagery as inspiration : Forty stories in the desert / Lex Williford
• Staying true to the image / Robert Shapard
• Hanging fire : a meta-narrative on flash fiction / Stace Budzko
• Poetry versus prose : A short story theory / Robert Olen Butler
• Getting the lead out : how writing really bad poetry yields really better short stories / Steve Almond
• Flash fiction, prose poetry, and men jumping out of windows : searching for plot and finding definitions / Kim Chinquee
• Taking risks : Put yourself in danger : an examination of Diane Williams's courageous short / Deb Olin Unferth
• Flash in a pan : writing outside of time's boundaries / Sherrie Flick
• Focusing and editing : Expose yourself to flash / Mark Budman
• Plaster dust and sleeping jockeys : tapping your story for load-bearing sentences / Pia Z. Ehrhardt
• Editing and revising flash fiction : how to COAP / Rusty Barnes
• The future of flash fiction : Writing fixed-form narratives : who's going to stop you? / Bruce Holland Rogers
• A flash before the bang / Julio Ortega
• A call to action : On writing flash fiction / Ron Carlson.

Nathan Leslie’s ten books of fiction include Three Men, Root and Shoot, Sibs and Drivers, among others. He is also the author of The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice, a novel, and the poetry collection Night Sweat. Nathan’s work has appeared in hundreds of literary magazines including Boulevard, Shenandoah, North American Review, Hotel Amerika and Cimarron Review. Nathan was series editor for Best of the Web anthology 2008 and 2009 (Dzanc Books) and edited fiction for Pedestal Magazine for many years.

Recently Nathan was interviews editor at Prick of the Spindle and over the past two years he wrote a monthly music column for Atticus Review. His work appeared in Best Small Fictions 2016 and earlier this year his work was published in Flash! A flash fiction anthology published by Norton and edited by John Dufresne. Check him out on Twitter and Facebook. He is the founder and host of the monthly Reston Readings series and he teaches in Northern Virginia at Northern Virginia Community College.

Buy Nathan Leslie Books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Neil Gaiman: Main Rule of Writing

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

 ~ Neil Gaiman

(November 10, 1960)

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, audio theatre, and films. His works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. Wikipedia

Neil Gaiman books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Neil Gaiman: When People Tell You Something's Wrong With Your Writing

Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

 ~ Neil Gaiman

(November 10, 1960)

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, audio theatre, and films. His works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. Wikipedia

Neil Gaiman books at Amazon

Quote by John Fowles: Races on This Planet

"There are only two races on this planet - the intelligent and the stupid."
 

– John Fowles

 (March 31, 1926 – November 5, 2005)

 John Robert Fowles was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by John Fowles: If You Wonder Whether You Should be a Novelist

"If you wonder whether you should be a novelist, the answer is no, but if you find that you can’t stop writing, the answer is yes."
 

– John Fowles

 (March 31, 1926 – November 5, 2005)

 John Robert Fowles was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by David Morrell: You Have to Follow Your Own Voice

You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, ‘This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I’m doing the best I can—buy me or not—but this is who I am as a writer.

 

 ~ David Morrell 

(born April 24, 1943) 

 David Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, later adapted as the 1982 film of the same name, which went on to spawn the successful Rambo franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 30 languages. Wikipedia

Buy David Morrell Books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Clayton Hamilton: The Four Methods of Discourse

1. Argumentation. 

Rhetoricians, as everybody knows, arbitrarily but conveniently distinguish four forms, or moods, or methods, of discourse: namely, narration, description, exposition, and argumentation. It may be stated without fear of well-founded contradiction that the natural mood, or method, of fiction is the first of these,––narration. Argumentation, for its own sake, has no place in a work of fiction. There is, to be sure, a type of novel, which is generally called in English “the novel with a purpose,” the aim of which is to persuade the reader to accept some special thesis that the author holds concerning politics, religion, social ethics, or some other of the phases of life 45that are readily open to discussion. But such a novel usually fails of its purpose if it attempts to accomplish it by employing the technical devices of argument. It can best fulfil its purpose by exhibiting indisputable truths of life, without persuasive comment, ex cathedra, on the part of the novelist. In vain he argues, denounces, or defends, appeals to us or coaxes us, unless his story in the first place convinces by its very truthfulness. If his thesis be as incontestable as the author thinks it is, it can prove itself by narrative alone.

 2. Exposition.

Exposition, for its own sake, is also out of place in fiction. The aim of exposition is to explain,––an aim necessarily abstract; but the purpose of fiction is to represent life,––a purpose necessarily concrete. To discourse of life in abstract terms is to subvert the natural mood of art; and the novelist may make his meaning just as clear by representing life concretely, without a running commentary of analysis and explanation. Life truly represented will explain itself. There are, to be sure, a number of great novelists, of whom George Eliot may be taken as the type, who frequently halt their story to write an essay about it. These essays are often instructive in themselves, but they are not fiction, because they do not embody their truths in imagined facts of human life. George Eliot is at one moment properly a novelist, and at the next moment a discursive expositor. She would be still greater as a novelist, and a novelist merely, if she could make her meaning clear without digressing to another art.

 3. Description.

Description also, in the most artistic fiction, is used only as subsidiary and contributive to narration. The aim of description––which is to suggest the look of things at a certain characteristic moment––is an aim necessarily static. But life––which the novelist purposes to represent––is not static but dynamic. The 46aim of description is pictorial: but life does not hold its pictures; it melts and merges them one into another with headlong hurrying progression. A novelist who devotes two successive pages to the description of a landscape or a person, necessarily makes his story stand still while he is doing it, and thereby belies an obvious law of life. Therefore, as writers of fiction have progressed in art, they have more and more eliminated description for its own sake.

4. Narration.

The Natural Mood of Fiction.––Since, then, the natural mood, or method, of fiction is narration, it is necessary that we should devote especial study to the nature of narrative. And in a study frankly technical we may be aided at the outset by a definition, which may subsequently be explained in all its bearings.

Clayton Meeker Hamilton (November 14, 1881 – September 17, 1946) was an American drama critic.

Except from Manual of the Art of Fiction Clayton Hamilton

This book is a complete course in writing fiction. Drawing examples from the works of such masters as Poe, Hawthorne, and Robert Louis Stevenson, it offers a guided course through such vital topics as Realism, Plot, Characters, Setting, Point of View, The Epic, Structure of the Short Story, and much more.

Writing Quote by Clayton Hamilton: The Art of Fiction and the Craft of Chemistry

Fiction, to borrow a figure from chemical science, is life distilled. In the author’s mind, the actual is first evaporated to the real, and the real is then condensed to the imagined. The author first transmutes the concrete actualities of life into abstract realities; and then he transmutes these abstract realities into concrete imaginings. Necessarily, if he has pursued this mental process without a fallacy, his imaginings will be true; because they represent realities, which in turn have been induced from actualities.

Clayton Meeker Hamilton 

(November 14, 1881 – September 17, 1946) was an American drama critic.

Except from Manual of the Art of Fiction Clayton Hamilton

This book is a complete course in writing fiction. Drawing examples from the works of such masters as Poe, Hawthorne, and Robert Louis Stevenson, it offers a guided course through such vital topics as Realism, Plot, Characters, Setting, Point of View, The Epic, Structure of the Short Story, and much more.

Writing Quote by John Steinbeck: A Great and Interesting Story is About Everyone

“If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule – a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.” 

– John Steinbeck 

(February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968)

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Nora Roberts: As a Writer You Should Have the Three D’s: Drive, Discipline and Desire

“[As a #writer] you have to have the three D’s: drive, discipline and desire. If you’re missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it’s going to be really hard to get anything done.” 

— Nora Roberts

(born October 10, 1950 ) 

Nora Roberts is an American author of more than 225 romance novels. She writes as J. D. Robb for the in Death series and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publications in the U.K. as Sarah Hardesty. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Stephen King: When Writing Fiction Just Tell the Story First

“When you write a book you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest. Once your basic story is on paper, think about what it means and enrich your following drafts with your conclusions.”

— Stephen King

(Born September 21, 1947)

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Wikipedia 

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Writing Quote by William Faulkner: Always Dream and Shoot Higher Than You Know You Can Do.

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."

 
 – William Faulkner

(September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962)

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, screenplays, poetry, essays, and a play. Wikipedia


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Writing Quote by Octavia E. Butler: Writing is One of the Few Professions in Which You Can Psychoanalyse Yourself

"Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it."
 

—  Octavia E. Butler 

(June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006)

Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction author. A multiple recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, she became in 1995 the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Stephen King: Description Begins in the Writer’s Imagination

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.”

— Stephen King

(Born September 21, 1947)

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Wikipedia 

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Writing Quote by Stephen King: If You Intend to Write as Truthfully as You Can

“If you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”

— Stephen King

(Born September 21, 1947)

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Wikipedia 

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Writing Quote by Stephen King: When the Writer Grow Enchanted With His Powers of Description

“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.”

— Stephen King

(Born September 21, 1947)

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Wikipedia 

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Writing Quote by Stephen King: Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”

— Stephen King

(Born September 21, 1947)

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Wikipedia 

 Stephen King books at Amazon

Writing Quote by Natalie Goldberg: I Write Because

 

“I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me... I write because there are stories that people have forgotten to tell, because I am a woman trying to stand up in my life... I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I'll ever have.”

 — Natalie Goldberg

(born January 4, 1948)

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Natalie Goldberg is an American popular author and speaker. She is best known for a series of books which explore writing as Zen practice.Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Natalie Goldberg: How Writers Must Think

 

“We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded. This is how writers must think, this is how we must sit down with pen in hand. We were here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important. Otherwise, if they are not, we can drop a bomb and it doesn't matter. . . Recording the details of our lives is a stance against bombs with their mass ability to kill, against too much speed and efficiency. A writer must say yes to life, to all of life: the water glasses, the Kemp's half-and-half, the ketchup on the counter. It is not a writer's task to say, "It is dumb to live in a small town or to eat in a café when you can eat macrobiotic at home." Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life as they exist – the real truth of who we are: several pounds overweight, the gray, cold street outside, the Christmas tinsel in the showcase, the Jewish writer in the orange booth across from her blond friend who has black children. We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.”

 — Natalie Goldberg

(born January 4, 1948)

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Natalie Goldberg is an American popular author and speaker. She is best known for a series of books which explore writing as Zen practice.Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Henry David Thoreau: How Vain it is to Sit down to Write

 “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” 

— Henry David Thoreau

(July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) 

Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Wikipedia

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Writing Quotes by Natalie Goldberg: Writers End Up Writing About Their Obsessions

 

“Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them; things they can’t forget; stories they carry in their bodies waiting to be released.”

 — Natalie Goldberg

(born January 4, 1948)

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Natalie Goldberg is an American popular author and speaker. She is best known for a series of books which explore writing as Zen practice.Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Natalie Goldberg: Write What Disturbs You

 

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”

 — Natalie Goldberg

(born January 4, 1948)

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Natalie Goldberg is an American popular author and speaker. She is best known for a series of books which explore writing as Zen practice.Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Stephen King: On Writing Style

“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”

— Stephen King

(Born September 21, 1947)

On Writing A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. Wikipedia 

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Writing Quote by Zadie Smith: I Want to Write Without Shame

"I want to write without shame or pride or over-compensation in one direction or another. To write freely."

– Zadie Smith

(Born 25 October 1975)

Zadie Adeline Smith FRSL is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth, immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University since September 2010. Wikipedia

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Writing Quote by Zadie Smith: Writing Short Stories

"My short stories have always pushed twenty pages. That’s no length for a short story to be. You either do them short like Carver or you stop trying."

– Zadie Smith

(Born 25 October 1975)

Zadie Adeline Smith FRSL is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth, immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University since September 2010. Wikipedia

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