Theodora Goss Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Write all the time. I believe in writing every day, at least a thousand words a day. We have a strange idea about writing: that it can be done, and done well, without a great deal of effort. Dancers practice every day, musicians practice every day, even when they are at the peak of their careers – especially then. Somehow, we don’t take writing as seriously. But writing – writing wonderfully – takes just as much dedication.

  Theodora Goss

  Dance, Believe, Writing

• Learn as much as you can. Take every opportunity to learn about writing, whether it’s through classes, workshops, whatever is available to you. This may be difficult, because things like classes, workshops, writing programs, require time and money. But I say this honestly and somewhat harshly – if you’re not willing to prioritize your writing, perhaps you should do something else?

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Opportunity, Class

• The appeal of writing a romance was that I'd never written one before the The Thorn and The Blossom.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Romance, Appeals

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• Writing is an art like other arts. Dancers don't dance every once in a while. Musicians don't stop practicing. They are dedicated to what they do.

  Theodora Goss

  Art, Writing, Dancer

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• If you’re a writer, your first duty, a duty you owe to yourself and your readers, and to your writing itself, is to become wonderful. To become the best writer you can possibly be.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Firsts, Wonderful

• I'm used to writing fairy tales that can be somewhat dark, and the truth is that in fairy tales, romances are always problematic. They may end happily ever after, but someone's getting pushed into an oven or has blood in her shoe.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Dark, Shoes

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• My uncommon sense told me to write this book [Turn and blossom], even though I was in the middle of making final revisions to my dissertation! Common sense would have said, finish the dissertation and get a good, solid academic position. But instead, I got to do something that no one else has done, because I don't think anyone has written a book quite like this one. And look at how beautiful it is!

  Theodora Goss

  Beautiful, Book, Writing

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• Read a lot. But read as a writer, to see how other writers are doing it. And make your knowledge of literature in English as deep and broad as you can. In workshops, writers are often told to read what is being written now, but if that is all you read, you are limiting yourself. You need to get a good overall sense of English literary history, so you can write out of that knowledge.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Needs, Literature

• I loved writing something I'd never written before, and I wanted to write not just about "true love" but also a human relationship.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Wanted, Humans

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• I loved writing something people usually have - miscommunication, for example. Now that I've written a romance, I'm sure I'll write more: it's fascinating to put people together and see what happens, how they fall in love and what that means in their lives.

  Theodora Goss

  Falling In Love, Mean, Writing

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• The only thing worth thinking about, when I write a story, is whether I like it, whether I want to write it, whether it excites me.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Thinking, Stories

• Writing two stories [in the Thorn and the Blossom] about the same set of events that were complete stories in themselves, but also added up to a larger story. As I was writing them, I kept going back and forth, because something would happen in one story that would have to be reflected in the other story. And yet the same event would also have to be perceived in different ways by Brendan and Evelyn, because they are different people with their own interpretations.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Two, People

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• The editor, Stephen Segal, actually called me with the idea of creating an accordion book [ "The Thorn & The Blossom"], and asked if I could write a story for it. I was so intrigued! I immediately knew that it had to be a love story told from the points of view of the two main characters. Right away, I started working on a proposal. And once I had my main characters, Brendan and Evelyn, it was as though they started telling me their stories.

  Theodora Goss

  Book, Character, Writing

  Source: www.bookequals.com

• I co-edited an anthology called Interfictions with Delia Sherman and wrote a short scholarly book on three women poets called Voices from Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. So I've been busy, but I haven't had time to write a novel.

  Theodora Goss

  Book, Writing, Voice

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• I would tell myself to get more sleep! Believe it or not, I wrote the book while finishing my PhD in English literature. It was wonderful to get away from doing literary scholarship by writing this mythical love story. I think so much of my own love for books and scholarship comes through in The Thorn and the Blossom.

  Theodora Goss

  Book, Believe, Sleep

  Source: www.bookequals.com

• Jorge Luis Borges wrote a poem when he was in his 80s about one day writing the book that would justify him. This was long after he had become one of the great masters, a writer everyone looks up to and reveres. As artists, I don't think we ever see ourselves as done. We always think we're at the beginning . . .

  Theodora Goss

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• The format of the book was the idea of my wonderful editor, Stephen Segal. Stephen and I had worked together before, on projects for the Interstitial Arts Foundation, and when he got the idea for an accordion-style book, he called and asked if I could write the story for it. I told him that I would love to try! And I knew it had to be a love story, because that's the sort of story you really want to hear from both perspectives. I mean, imagine if Pride and Prejudice were told from Darcy's perspective as well as Elizabeth's. It would be quite a different story!

  Theodora Goss

  Art, Book, Mean

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

• Delia Sherman once told me that you never learn to write a story. You only learn to write the story you are currently writing. You have to learn how to write the next story all over again. And she's absolutely right.

  Theodora Goss

  Writing, Stories, Next

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

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