Writer’s Digest - Advice From the Archives

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November 21, 2009

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Advice From the Archives

February 11, 2008

In September 1961, the editors of Writer's Digest asked a handful of the world's greatest writers the following question: "What advice would you offer a person who aspires to a writing career?" Their answers follow:

AN INTERVIEW WITH HEMINGWAY
In December 1964, Edward Stafford provided Writer's Digest with an interview conducted with Ernest Hemingway shortly before the author's death in 1961. It's excerpted here for the first time in more than 40 years. Please note that the excerpt has been abridged due to space considerations:
AN AFTERNOON WITH HEMINGWAY.

LITERARY LEGENDS
What's old in writing advice seems new again, as one writer discovered on his trip back in time through the Writer's Digest archives: Literary Legends by Phil Sexton

"Study the writers' magazines and pound hell out of the typewriter."
—Erle Stanley Gardner

"Sorry—if I had any advice to give I'd take it myself."
—John Steinbeck

"The new writer should observe, listen, look ? and then write. Nothing begets better writing than the simple process of writing."
—Rod Serling

"The beginning writer needs talent, application and aspirin. If he wants to write just to make money, he is not a writer."
—James Thurber

"Beware of advice—even this."
—Carl Sandburg

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