Rewrite formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%. by Stephen King

Rewrite formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%.

Stephen King

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Categorized in : Writing Formulas

The past is obdurate. by Stephen King

The past is obdurate.

Why don't we all just go crazy when we know were going to croak? Because the mind's a monkey. You put things in departments and you go ahead. You go on and plan for the future and assume that the future's going to work out okay. Yet we know that sooner or later we're all going to be eating worms, whether it's fifty years or sixty. It might be tomorrow. It might happen today.

work-out crazy years

Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.

letting-go song friendship

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right — as right as you can, anyway — it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it.

stories writing doors

What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely... by Stephen King

What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common.

philosophical meaningful thinking

The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window.

atheist religious religion

I have always felt a little bit uncomfortable with question [why I'm write these stories]. It's not a question that you would ask a guy that writes detective stories or the guy that writes mystery stories, or westerns, or whatever. But it is asked of the writer of horror stories because it seems that there is something nasty about our love for horror stories, or boogies, ghosts and goblins, demons and devils.

horror-stories guy writing

It's best to be ruthless with the past. by Stephen King

It's best to be ruthless with the past.

No matter how many times you shake it the last drop always ends u... by Stephen King

No matter how many times you shake it the last drop always ends up in your pants

lasts matter life

There is no such thing as a happy ending. I never met a single on... by Stephen King

There is no such thing as a happy ending. I never met a single one to equal "Once upon a time.

happy-endings mets once-upon-a-time

Just remember that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was i... by Stephen King

Just remember that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him.

magic remember needs

Time apparently did nothing but blunt grief’s sharpest edge so th... by Stephen King

Time apparently did nothing but blunt grief’s sharpest edge so that it hacked rather than sliced.

blunt edges grief

there is no gain without risk, perhaps no risk without love. by Stephen King

there is no gain without risk, perhaps no risk without love.

without-love gains risk

Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.

inner-strength adversity twilight

You can go through your whole life telling yourself that life is logical, life is prosaic, life is sane. Above all sane. And I think it is. I've had a lot of time to think about that. And what I keep coming back to is [her] dying declaration: 'So you understand that when we increase the number of variables, the axioms themselves never change.'

numbers life thinking

Invitation to Dance- It’s a Dance. And sometimes they turn the lights off in this ballroom. But we’ll dance anyway, you and I. Even in the Dark. Especially in the Dark. May I have the pleasure?

You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.

girl eye writing

The family exists for many reasons, but its most basic function may be to draw together after a member dies.

reason together may

She can't help it,' he said. 'She's got the soul of a poet and the emotional makeup of a junkyard dog.

makeup emotional dog

there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared... by Stephen King

there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.

optimism optimistic long