"I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled……" — Sol Stein
"I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled for the literary reader because they are one long stream of top-of-the-head writing, a writer telling a story without concern for precision or freshness in the use of language. Some of this storytelling reads as if it were spoken rather than written, stuffed with tired images that pop into the writer's head because they are so familiar. The top of the head is fit for growing hair, but not for generating fine prose."
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Sol Stein
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13 Quotes by Sol Stein
Sol Stein has 13 quotes on this site.
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A reader's emotions can be sparked with few words. That's the power of dialogue.
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Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts.
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Most of the time, tough, combative, adversarial dialogue is much more exciting than physical action.
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Dialogue, contrary to popular view, is not a recording of actual speech; it is a semblance of speech, an invented…
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Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may…
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To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive.
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In our not-yet-acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of some of our best not-yet-written stories
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A writer writes what other people only think.
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Our instinct as human beings is to provide answers, to ease tension. As writers our job is the opposite, to…
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The expert magician seeks to deceive the mind, rather than the eye.
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The biggest difference between a writer and a would-be writer is their attitude toward rewriting. . . . Unwillingness to…
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Readers, transformed by film and TV, are used to seeing stories. The reading experience . . . is increasingly visual.
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