Quote

James Blish told me I had the worst case of said bookism (that is, using every word except said to indicate dialogue). He told me to limit the verbs to said, replied, asked, and answered and only when absolutely necessary.

Anne McCaffrey

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anne McCaffrey
Age: 85 †
Born: 1926
Born: April 1
Died: 2011
Died: November 21
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Cambridge
Massachusetts
Anne Inez McCaffrey
Cases
Dialogue
Told
Using
Worst
Absolutely
Indicate
Word
Case
Verbs
Writing
Limits
Replied
Every
Except
Answered
Necessary
James
Asked
Limit

More quotes by Anne McCaffrey

Image
People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?
Anne McCaffrey
Image
What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage
Anne McCaffrey
Image
The horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens
Anne McCaffrey
Image
My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly the rest is subject to change without notice.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
How much can a dragon carry? As much as it thinks it can
Anne McCaffrey
Image
To cry was to release all sorts of ugly little pressures and tensions. Like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Who wills, Can. Who tries, Does. Who loves, Lives.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write
Anne McCaffrey
Image
I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Step by step Moment by moment We live through Another day
Anne McCaffrey
Image
Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible
Anne McCaffrey
Image
That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.
Anne McCaffrey
Image
At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book
Anne McCaffrey