Random Musings

What is your favourite quote and why?

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” Robert Frost

I can think of others, but throughout my career in publishing, this is the one that has come up time and time again. It tells you what you need to focus on as a writer. Emotion. Unexpected plot things. Unexpected behaviour by your characters.

If you don’t enjoy what you’re writing, it’s going to show. It will show on every level. From a plot that isn’t overly interesting to characters who feel at least a little flat. At worst, it comes across like someone in elementary school might write:

She went up a hill. She drew out a pail of water, and it was heavy. She tripped over lazy Jack, who was sitting against the well. She fell and spilled her water and got angry and stomped home.

Fascinating stuff. If your characters are having a fight, or sex, or a good laugh that makes them feel better, you need to be feeling those feelings as you’re writing. I wrote an emotional argument scene in The Heart Remembers, and I actually cried as I wrote it. I could feel the rain on their skin, the desperation of both characters as they poured their hearts out to each other, and that feeling that things simply couldn’t work out.

Now, whether or not the reader felt that I don’t know. I don’t read my reviews. But I know, because I felt it when I wrote it, that I did the best I could with that scene. And therefore I’m proud of it.

Do you have a fave quote?