Spend It All

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annie dillard

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place…. Something more will arise for later, something better. – Annie Dillard

A Terminal Audience

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annie dillard

Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. – Annie Dillard

You Might As Well

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annie dillard

It is no less difficult to write sentences in a recipe than sentences in Moby-Dick. So you might as well write Moby-Dick. – Annie Dillard

A Surgeon’s Probe

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annie dillard

When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner’s pick, a wood carver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year. – Annie Dillard

Reassert Your Mastery

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annie dillard

A work in progress quickly becomes feral. It reverts to a wild state overnight. . . it is a lion growing in strength. You must visit it every day and reassert your mastery over it. If you skip a day, you are, quite rightly, afraid to open the door to its room. You enter its room with bravura, holding a chair at the thing and shouting, ‘Simba!’ – Annie Dillard

Give It Now

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annie dillard

Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.
—Annie Dillard