Arbitrary Quote by Catherine Brady

“I have to trick myself into writing a story - impose some arbitrary constraint to distract me from the constraints of my past habits or my fear that I don't have much to say.”

Catherine Brady

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Arbitrary Constraints Habit My past Past Stories Tricks Writing

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When I decided to stop using quotation marks, it presented technical challenges: you have to conceive of dialogue differently and structure it differently for…

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I wanted to let form lead my thinking, and repetition always confronts you with the interesting problem of how to break out of a…

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What I've found as I have kept writing stories is that more and more your way is barred. I feel really choked by what…

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I think it's very hard to be sexually explicit and erotic - though there are writers, like K. M. Soehnlein, who are just brilliant…

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My Irish Catholic mother loved romantic movies, provided they ended with a kiss before the screen went dark. If things went any further than…

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When you write, you're supposed to go stand somewhere else for a while, see things from a perspective that's not in line with your…

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You have to be able to play: this is spontaneous interaction, and it flexes all the creative muscles you need as a writer. And…

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If you cross-section anyone's life from one angle and then another, what constitutes goodness looks different each time. It's not an absolute.

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I've always hated quotation marks: they're ugly on the page and they classify the text for you, putting dialogue in one box and narration…

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I love the way a story's ending can force you to read backwards. It's as if you are slowly adjusting a kaleidoscope until a…

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It's hard to write sex because it's hard to write desire, period.

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You don't really have a story until you discover the moment when the pressures on a character force a sudden, abrupt shift in direction…

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Explore all 16 Catherine Brady quotes

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I don't concern myself with thinking ahead to the finished product. I focus more specifically on what the character is experiencing. Once you relieve…

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Habit is altogether too arbitrary a master for me to submit to.

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I look back, now, and I know that the naming moment, which seemed so insignificant then, which seemed to demand no more than an…

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