“If you write, someone is going to try to make you feel bad about it.” The next two quotes, by JRR Tolkien, appear in the foreword to “The Lord of the Rings,” and illustrate points I made earlier (I have added my own emphasis to the first quote). “Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.” “It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others especially approved.” Barbara Kingsolver provides the final quote: “This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘Not at this address’. Just keep looking for the right address.”
1 Comment
|
AuthorI'm a writer in Columbus, Ohio. I've written plays. short stories, and I am working on a novel. Categories
All
|