…Delete-delete-delete, all the way back to the very line where last you cared…Lydia Millet QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Yes, you need to put words on the page, but to qualify for the page those words must always interest you. For if not you, then whom? Writing should not be a laborious construction of wall-climbing obstacle courses for those readers who one day walk the path of your prose, but a delicate and sparkling web designed to spring skyward as though weighted down only by the touch of yiddle fairies’ feet. If you find yourself on autopilot, halt. Delete-delete-delete, all the way back to the very line where last you cared. You, at least, should never have to wait to get to the good part.
Lydia Millet
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A Good Confession
"Unputdownable" Miriam Stoppard
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 
Brilliant. And wonderful.
Agree!
I loved that last part —- You, at least, should never have to wait to get to the good part.—- I have never thought of that before.
I don’t think I ever have either, but she’s nailed it.
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
As always, thanks Chris
What an excellent quote from Millet.
So glad you like it.
Bridget excellent advice, engagingly expressed. A great example of what you are saying, you captured the reader from line 1 and got the point effortlessly home.. so you taught us something without us feeling we were being taught.
But not me at all, but a novelist I’ve never heard before Lydia Millet who I amj certainly going to read. Eleven novels to date…
Wise words!!
Oh yes!
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
A quote by Lydia Millet.
Thank you, Patricia.