1. “The first sentence can be written only after the last sentence has been written. FIRST DRAFTS ARE HELL. FINAL DRAFTS, PARADISE.”
2. “Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!”
3. “Read, observe, listen intensely! — as if your life depended upon it.”
4. “I’m not very conscious of anybody reading my work; I never think about that. Each work has its own integrity. If you’re writing a short story, the story’s probably going to be about 25 pages long with a certain density and lyricism.”
5. “You can’t write it too fast, because that’s how long it takes. So, the important thing is the integrity of that work.”
6. “I recommend to my students that they do the whole thing quickly and then revise.”
7. “The notes come first and since I travel a lot, I take notes by hand. At first the notes are just for me, but after a while I’ll put them together into an outline, and then I type them onto a computer.”
8. “I write the end, or the last sentence, first. Even if I don't physically write it down, I always at least know how the story ends.”
9. “That’s the best advice to give a writer or an artist: Be in some place where you’re not interrupted. That could even mean internal interruptions, too. Get to some physical and mental place where you’re not going to be interrupted.”
10. “Write your heart out.”
Joyce Carol Oats
Joyce Carol Oats was born June 16, 1938, Lockport, New York, USA. Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer and has published over 40 novels, plays, and short stories. She has won many awards through out her career. She is best known for such works as Blonde, The wheel of Love (Collection of Short Stories), and many more. The hard subject’s Oates often dives into, such as, racial tension, poverty, and violence has set her to the top.
“Novels begin, not on the page, but in meditation and day-dreaming - In thinking, not writing.” ~ Joyce Carol Oates
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