Quote of the week

Okay, so I’ve never had a quote of the week before. But I like the following so much, it might be worth starting the tradition.

Stephen Romei, in the Weekend Australian Review, included this quote from Australian author Debra Adelaide (writing in Newswrite, the NSW Writers Centre journal) in the Feb 18-19 edition:

‘Writing is hard work: frustration, dead ends and above all failure, failure and more failure, until you arrive at the final form and none of this changes with genre.’

Romei then points out Ms Adelaide goes on to say that when writing is good it ‘makes the result seem fluid and effortless, as if the story is warm honey the author has poured out in a single act, but which also makes us feel the work is written for us alone’.

I like this for a couple of reasons: first, it acknowledges how much effort goes into making writing look effortless; and second, it acknowledges that the same frustrations exist for the genre writer as the literary one.

0 Comments

  1. crubin says:

    Sums the process up beautifully. Thanks for sharing it. 🙂

    1. paulaweston says:

      My pleasure. 🙂 I wish I’d said something so sublime…

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About Me

I’m the author of the Rephaim series and The Undercurrent.

For my day job, I’m a writer-journalist-professional communicator, where my writing involves a lot less profanity.

I grew up in regional South Australia and now live in the Scenic Rim with my husband and a retired greyhound.

If you’re interested in how I came to land a publishing deal, you can read the short version in this post from August 2011. There’s a longer version (in a guest post) here.

Paula Weston

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