Three character traits are essential — determination, instinct and passion. Each acts as a balance for the others. Determination teaches a wrter to be patient; without it, commitment quickly fades. Instinct tells a writer which fork in the road to take; without it, as many wrong turns are taken as right. Passion imbues a writer with fearlessness; without it, no chances are ever taken.
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If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.
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If you are ever compeletly satisfied with something you have written, you are setting your sights too low. But if you can’t let go of your material even after you have done the best that you can with it, you are setting your sights too high.
If you do not love what you do, if you are not appropriately grateful for the chance to create something magical each time you sit down at the computer or with pencil and paper in hand, somewhere along the way your writing will betray you.
If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical.
If anything in your life is more important than writing — anything at all — you should walk away now while you still can. Forewarned is forearmed.
For those who cannot or will not walk away, you need only remember this.
Writing is life. Breathe deeply of it.
Yesterday I was reading Terry Brooks’ Sometimes the Magic Works and came to the ending, where he shares some of the most important aspects of writing.
2 comments on “Sometimes the Magic Works”
I really thought so too. He created something really valuable with this book, I think. I’ve never read a book on writing that was so full of love and appreciation for the craft and with such humility and sincere want to help other writers (and the advice is actually quite practical as well). All of that came across when I met him a few years ago. He really cares about making connections with his readers and has a passion for books in general.
It looks like the host is down at the moment. I’d bet it’ll be back up soon.