WRITING TIPS
Stamina
An Element of Fiction
I guess that another word for Stamina in these circumstances would be stick-to-itiveness. John Gardner, as always, brings this front and center:
“Thinking this way, working unit by unit, always keeping in mind what the plan of his story requires him to do but refusing to be hurried to more important things, the writer achieves a story with no dead spots, no blurs, a story in which we find no lapses of aesthetic interest.”
“The true young novelist has the stamina, patience, and single-mindedness of a draft horse.”
“People who have respect for all that grownups generally respect (earning a good living, etc.), are unlikely ever to make it through the many revisions it takes to tell a story beautifully, without visible tricks.”
Says Ayn Rand, “No matter how much talent you have, if you let your focus slip on any one sentence or paragraph, it will show in a slacking of your workmanship. So focus equally on every part of your writing, whether it is the key paragraph or the little transition paragraph. Not all of them have to be equally brilliant or significant, but they all have to be written with the same care.”
My own take on this, “Characters, Want, and Purpose must all show strength and endurance. No one wants to live…
