Quote: John D. MacDonald: “Most beginners think that writing is a quick ticket to some kind of celebrity status, to broads and talk shows. Those with that shallow motivation can forget it. Here’s how it goes. Take a person twenty-five years old. If that person has not read a minimum of three books a week since he or she was ten years old, or 2,340 books—comic books not counted—and if he or she is not still reading at that pace, then forget it. If he or she is not willing to commit one million words to paper—ten medium long novels—without much hope of ever selling one word, in the process of learning his trade, then forget it.”
Comment: Sets the bar high. A discouraging view of what it takes to be a writer. Worth thinking about. RayS.
Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.
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