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Writing Quips and Tips
Writing is like driving
“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
I live by EL Doctorow’s comment, probably because I know how easy it is to be daunted by the enormity of the task. When you begin, it can seem impossible that you’ll achieve what you’ve set out to do. That you’ll gradually weave in the information that will build and resonate in the reader’s head.
How will you hold the threads together through so many months of writing? How will you drip-feed information, resisting the temptation to spew it all out in an orgy of exposition – before you forget, or so that people will understand what’s in your head?
If you think about the process like driving, it makes it easier somehow. Okay, I do believe you have to know that you’re driving to Cape Town, or you might end up in Botswana. And that’s a different trip.
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