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35ff537 Humans need each other for equilibrium and support. But writers must pull aside to take a quiet walk alone, not just for the sake of serenity but to hear the Voice inside. That is how the storyteller connects with with others--listen, write, share. outer-banks southern-fiction southern-writers Patricia Hickman
c10477b Because of sorrow, my awareness of life's pulse is strongly detectable. It is syncopation while I journey, a lap of ocean in the eyes of every person I meet. This awareness informs the flesh of my stories. Grief has been an odd companion, at first a terror, but now I am all the better having accepted it for its intrinsic worth. outer-banks southern-fiction southern-writers Patricia Hickman
b6041a2 Facing the sagging middle when writing a novel, while inevitable, may be overcome by pre-planning. I divide my collection of proposed scenes into three acts, each scene inciting tension that builds toward the final crisis in Act Three. If by Act Two the emotional river isn't spilling over the banks, I reassess the plot so that once the writing is flowing I don't slide into a dry creek. The central character should be struggling to navigate.. outer-banks southern-fiction southern-writers Patricia Hickman
77ba0e0 While writing the first draft is an exercise in shutting down all of the things we think we know so that the story features come tumbling out, the revision is the end of the joy ride. We pull on the gloves and sort of poke around inside the body. Is that a tumor? Will that limb need amputation? I nearly second-guessed myself into heart failure while learning to self-edit. outer-banks southern-fiction southern-writers Patricia Hickman
fa2091d The confessional writer will treat her story like a wailing wall. She kneels, and her story spills out, messy, improper. It isn't a protest or even graffiti, but her story is an offering of things that she overlooked or notices that others have overlooked. She is in danger of exposure but she remembers when she lived in hiding and that was worse. She cannot turn back now because this is how life has spun out of her, part vexing passage and .. outer-banks southern-fiction Patricia Hickman
9363b6f The conflict each day is whether to immerse in books or writing. I can't do one without the other, but I can't do both at the same time. It is the writer's paradox. outer-banks southern-fiction Patricia Hickman
60dc8e1 The central character is an incomplete package of yearning that takes the length of the novel to complete. Completion, though, is not to be confused with perfection. outer-banks southern-fiction southern-writers Patricia Hickman
030bd91 I started out hoping to remind people at some point in the novel that we should be loving and kind. But then the theme usurped my life, spilling over into my novels until love was no longer a small voice, but now my purpose as a writer. outer-banks southern-fiction southern-writers Patricia Hickman
5f9e580 are Patricia Hickman
5705683 The hardest part about changing the new year is changing ourselves. We have to write each day differently than last year's days. If we do, we increase the chances we won't meet with last year's disappointments. Patricia Hickman new-years-day Patricia Hickman