Joyce Carol Oates Writing Advice

Joyce Carol Oates Tweets Writing Advice

Joyce Carol Oates took to the twittersphere to relay some friendly advice on how to write more prolifically. See a few of them here, but follow THIS LINK to see them all.

1) Write your heart out.
2) The first sentence can be written only after the last sentence has been written. FIRST DRAFTS ARE HELL. FINAL DRAFTS, PARADISE.
3) You are writing for your contemporaries–not for Posterity. If you are lucky, your contemporaries will become Posterity.
4) Keep in mind Oscar Wilde: “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”
5) When in doubt how to end a chapter, bring in a man with a gun. (This is Raymond Chandler’s advice, not mine. I would not try this.)