Comments on: The Writing Life: Quoting Annie Dillard

By: writer reading

writer reading — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:05:51 +0000

Annie Dillard is a gift to all writers. These are wonderful quotes. It’s nice to see you writing about writing.

By: lalber

lalber — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:32:14 +0000

I was going to mention Francine Prose’s book, too, but Nova beat me to it. Another that I’ve liked is Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird.” She’s irreverant and insightful and inspirational.

By: deb

deb — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:40:30 +0000

I read Stephen King’s book on writing and loved it. I am not a fan of horror but he is an amazing writer.

“It takes years to write a book-between two and ten years. Less is so rare as to be statistically insignificant.” A good reminder for me. Thank you.

By: Eve

Eve — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:58:37 +0000

Mum and Nova, thanks for your suggestions. I’ve not read Miller’s book nor Prose’s, so will order them through Amazon.

Reading about writing seems to focus my intentions, and it’s so helpful to know what the boundaries of “normal” are for other writers. Such as reading that there’s no substitute for just doing it (as Anthromama keeps pointing out) or that some writers hate having to write, or that it can take years to write a good book.