Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
1. Write freely and as
rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or
rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to
be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which
can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
2. Forget your generalized
audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to
death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In
writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it
helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and
write to that one.
3. If a scene or a section
gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When
you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that
the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
4. Beware of a scene that
becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it
is out of drawing.
5. If you are using
dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of
speech.
