Advice from the Masters: Tim O’Brien

Dec 16, 2015 | Writing A Book

Tim O’Brien is best known for his writing about his Viet Nam experience. If you read If I Die in a Combat Zone or The Things They Carried you will get a view of the Viet Nam ground war that you won’t find anywhere else. I found the advice below on Jon Winokur’s excellent site, Advice to Writers. It would help you write like Tim O’Brien, but it might help you get your book done.

“No book ever gets written by thinking about it or going bowling or playing golf. You have to put your butt down and spend many, many hours in front of a computer or a piece of paper, and don’t get up, even if you’re blocked or don’t know what’s going to happen next or you don’t know what the next sentence should be. You’re like a donkey, you just keep plodding. And that quality of perseverance and stubbornness is really important.”

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