Joyce Carol Oates is one of our favorite writers and writing personalities. A prolific tweeter, the 75 year old today put out 10 pieces of great advice for writing on her Twitter account. Check them out below, and let us know what you think in the comments!
10 WRITING TIPS (free): 10) Write your heart out.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
9) Read, observe, listen intensely!--as if your life depended upon it.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
8) Don't try to anticipate an ideal reader--or any reader. He/ she might exist--but is reading someone else.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
7) Be your own editor/ critic. Sympathetic but merciless!
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
6) Unless you are experimenting with form--gnarled, snarled & obscure--be alert for possibilities of paragraphing.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
5) When in doubt how to end a chapter, bring in a man with a gun. (This is Raymond Chandler's advice, not mine. I would not try this.)
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
4) Keep in mind Oscar Wilde: "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
3) You are writing for your contemporaries--not for Posterity. If you are lucky, your contemporaries will become Posterity.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
2) The first sentence can be written only after the last sentence has been written. FIRST DRAFTS ARE HELL. FINAL DRAFTS, PARADISE.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
1) Write your heart out.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 18, 2013
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