A librarian in Portland gave me the best writing advice I ever got

I was at the Multnomah County library last spring, just staring at a blank page in the fiction section. An older librarian walked by, saw my screen, and said 'stop trying to write the whole book today, just write one ugly sentence.' She told me she's seen a hundred people quit because they wanted perfection on draft one. It sounds so simple but it actually got me to finish a short story for the first time in like 2 years. Has anyone else had a random stranger say something that broke through a block?

3 comments

3 Comments

samflores12d ago

...and honestly that librarian sounds like she's seen some stuff. I had a similar thing happen at a coffee shop in Austin a few years back, I was staring at my laptop trying to come up with the perfect first line for a blog post about hiking trails. This old guy at the next table leaned over and said "son, nobody's gonna read that anyway so just type whatever comes to mind." Harsh but he kind of had a point. It's funny how strangers can say the exact same thing your friends have been telling you forever but it actually sticks. Do you think it's because they don't have any skin in the game so it feels more honest?

morgan_king3612d ago

Hold up though, is writing a book really that deep? I see people acting like every sentence needs to be a work of art and honestly most popular books are just okay writing with a good story. Sounds like the librarian was just telling you what you wanted to hear so you'd stop hovering in the fiction section. I've written plenty of stuff for work and school and nobody ever needed a magic phrase to get started. Just type something and move on, it's not brain surgery.

nancyjones12d agoMost Upvoted

Not brain surgery" ... well that's definitely a take from someone who's never stared at a blank page for two hours until their eyes blur.