Mark Twain's quotes have lived far beyond his death. I like the one that is our poster quote today. "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words."
Take a look at a few other quotes related to writing by this much-loved author and humorist.
A. The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
B. The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
C. The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
D. My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
E. Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream. (Great illustration of Show, Don't Tell!)
F. Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. (Get rid of unnecessary words.)
G. In 'Huckleberry Finn,' I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had.(His characters were real)
Writers can learn from these quotes and many of his others. Mark Twain wrote about life as it truly was. He didn't sugarcoat anything. He didn't steer clear of controversial topics of his era. Sadly, there are those today who would like to ban some of his books because they don't fit into today's society. Perhaps not, but they show history as it was.
Let's go back to the original quote today. "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words." What a great way to tell writers the importance of editing their work. Edit once, twice, three times, but no more than that. Too many times, and you might lose what you were trying to say in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment