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Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!

Anne McCaffrey

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Anne McCaffrey
Age: 85 †
Born: 1926
Born: April 1
Died: 2011
Died: November 21
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Cambridge
Massachusetts
Anne Inez McCaffrey
Trying
Reader
Style
Story
Tell
Neatly
Stories
Vocabulary
Firsts
Impress
First
Phrases
Writing
Turned

More quotes by Anne McCaffrey

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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
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I didn't mean to stay up all night to finish Windhaven, but I had to!
Anne McCaffrey
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I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime
Anne McCaffrey
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Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims
Anne McCaffrey
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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
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A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.
Anne McCaffrey
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How could she have believed such an artificial life as the theatre was suitable?
Anne McCaffrey
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I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway
Anne McCaffrey
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I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens
Anne McCaffrey
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That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.
Anne McCaffrey
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The thing is, emotion - if it's visibly felt by the writer - will go through all the processes it takes to publish a story and still hit the reader right in the gut. But you have to really mean it.
Anne McCaffrey
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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
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Fight only in direst need Not for lust or petty greed Honor those that do give birth Respect them well for their full worth
Anne McCaffrey
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I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom
Anne McCaffrey
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I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.
Anne McCaffrey
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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
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Drummer, beat, and piper, blowHarper, strike, and soldier, goFree the flame and sear the grassesTil the dawning Red Star passes
Anne McCaffrey
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I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff
Anne McCaffrey
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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
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Who wills, Can. Who tries, Does. Who loves, Lives.
Anne McCaffrey