An interesting story is told about Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), by biographer, Charles J. Shields in his book, Mockingbird (2006) (Summary mine) Sometime before publication, Ms. Lee was struggling with revisions. She opened the window of her apartment and flung the manuscript into the darkness. Years of work scattered in …
“Murder Your Darlings”
"Murder Your Darlings,"(On Style, chapter 12) is a quote from Arthur Quiller-Couch's series of published lectures (On the Art of Writing, 1916) He encouraged writer's to, "...perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it--wholeheartedly--and delete it before sending your manuscript to press..." He failed to mention, however, that tapping the delete button would require Hershey Kiss therapy for at least a …
My “Precious”
My "Precious" makes me insane. I have a story in my head. I want to share it with others but it must be planned and structured. Then it must be perfectly formatted, punctuated, and edited or an agent will reject it. Various writing craft books and blogs from our age tout, "Start in the middle …
Phyllis A. Still 