10 Tips On Writing From Joyce Carol Oates

Write your heart out.

The first sentence can be written only after the last sentence has been written. FIRST DRAFTS ARE HELL. FINAL DRAFTS, PARADISE.

You are writing for your contemporaries — not for Posterity. If you are lucky, your contemporaries will become Posterity.

Here are just 3 of the tips on writing from Joyce Carol Oates over at Brain Pickings. You know you want to read the other 7.

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Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She has a strong affinity for tattoos, otters, cat mystery books, and actual cats, but has mixed feelings about pants. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Women Who Submit, Entropy, Jaded Ibis Press, and Why There Are Words. You can find her on Twitter at @ArtsCollide.

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