Curation Corner: On sticking to your story, a daily 15 minutes, and chipping away

ALDERMAN McCANN CHANDLER WRITERS WORD CLOUD
Don’t ever write anything you don’t like yourself and if you do like it, don’t take anyone else’s advice about changing it. They just don’t know.

RAYMOND CHANDLER

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Write for fifteen minutes every day. Set a time in advance, set a timer. Try to write at the same time every day. Your subconscious will get used to the idea and will start to work like a reliable water spout.

NAOMI ALDERMAN

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The terror of the white page never goes away, no matter how much you publish. Do you know how terrified I was this morning, as I woke up and walked into my latest novel? And it doesn’t get any better. Every time I finish a piece of work, I am completely terrified that I’m going to be found out, that I’m a charlatan, that I have nothing left anymore. That I can’t do it anymore. It’s no good; I’ve lost touch. Through all of that, you find another block of stone. You just continue to carve and chip away.

COLUM McCANN

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Thanks to Jon Winokur–via his Twitter feed– and his Advice to Writers for these first three quotes.