Just to get the obvious apology out of the way, sorry, this post is not about the 1996 cult classic teenage witchcraft movie, it is instead about the craft of writing. Though that said there is a line that can be draw between Neve Campbell and Robin Tunney et all throwing around spells while struggling with teen angst and a whole subgenre of YA protagonists/antagonists, and writers in general over the last 25 years. Stephanie Meyer for example probably snuck off to watch the movie at some point despite her Mormon roots a decade before Twilight became a thing… But lets not drift off topic…

Actually this post is about the craft of writing, as it NaNoWriMo, though I am not participating in the annual challenge for the first time in several years due to family matters, but I feel obliged to offer a little encouragement to those who are as they get towards the gristle of the month, and a little advice to authors in general, by way of a few of my favourite quotes on the craft itself.

Enjoy…

Try to leave out the parts readers tend to skip ~ Elmore Leonard

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass ~ Anton Chekhov

The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer ~ Billy Wilder

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you ~ Ray Bradbury

Literature was not born the day when a boy crying ‘wolf, wolf’ came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying ‘wolf, wolf’ and there was no wolf behind him ~ Vladimir Nabokov

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide ~ Harper Lee

And finally, in light of all that, my favourite quote of all.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite ~ G K Chesterton