My Tweets On The Craft Of Writing Poem by Lonnie Hicks

'If you are really paying attention finishing well-crafted sentence can be thrilling.'

'If I see I'm falling love with one special character in my book I have to then start over-you have to love or at least respect them all to get a good book out of it.'

'Writing a book, is sometimes like being in solitaire where you amuse yourself writing something until you get out.'

'When ever I am reading something and become interested in learning more details about the author, that is a good book.'

'I have to tell myself sometimes that drooling over a new book really ruins the cover.'

'The problem with covers that so many are so much better than the book.'

'Tweet and retweet were sitting on a fence...'

'The problem with tweeting is that it has really cut down on my rambling.'

'The most humbling experience in the world is to have to admit your editor is right.'

'Without spell check and grammar check, there would be a lot fewer writers in the world. I would be gone.'

'Grammar is the traffic cop in the long line which is my average sentence.'

'The blank page is the most intimidating experience ever, the first line is exhilarating, the rest is real work.'

'If everything in the world is my fault, I am God, the Devil or a writer.'


'Never leave your mind when thinking, never your body when feeling.'

'The poor teach kids to survive, the middle class teach a good job & entrepreneurial, the rich teach living off the labor of others.'

'Success is realizing that your achievements are not your own but those of family, friends, mentors and those who have loved you.'

'Great people in history were often regarded as crazy, or failures; to become great at anything you just have to not mind these opinions.'

'Don't let your self be intimidated by reality.'

'Reality changes the minute I walk out of the door with a purpose.'

'You don't need to be the smartest person in the world to act, all you need is enough courage to do something today.'

'Life often feels like a prison camp, the trick is to not let that determine who you are.'

'There are no greater writers than friends and family who also want to edit.'

'Ask our leader 'why' five times in asking any question and we see they know little or nothing.'

'Mumbo Jumbo is the most widely used language in the world.'


'I carry pen and paper everywhere with me because my best ideas are loaned to my brain for only a second.'

'The first good book I wrote was the one etched in my life and then I translated it onto the written page.'

'Listen to people who have all the questions; avoid the people who have all the answers.'

'Poetry exists to make fiction exciting; fiction exists to implement poetic visions.'

'The test of my character is whether or not I listen to the characters in my book as they try to tell me about what the book is about.'

'Most times what I start writing about is changed by my characters who have their own strong opinions about what the book is about.'

'One day I wrote the perfect paragraph but I then panicked because it made me realize I had to edit all the other paragraphs.'

'Writing is an exercise in breathing for the reader, you should be aware of the breathing patterns implicit in what you write.'

'Words have music which is why every author should read their work out loud listening for the music.'

'Imperfectcion in you and your characters is what makes for great writing-imperfect! '

'The most important phrase in the English language is 'I'm not sure, let's you and me go find out.'

'The most important question any artist can ask is 'Says Who? '

'I always feel like the best book I ever wrote is the one still yet to be written and then I go try to prove myself write.'

'Sometimes, if you fall in love too much, there is trouble.'

'Nothing spoils childhood more than people wanting to be adults.'

'To write or play music from the point of view of a child is the most challenging thing possible.'

'The problem with being young is that people feel free to lie to you.'


'The good writer, musician, feels what comes next, the great ones feel what comes next to maximize choices many steps down the road.'

'The biggest thrill I ever get from writing is when one person gets what the hell I was talking about, even if I didn't'

'My best writing will not be appreciated until after I am dead; humm, what a temptation.'

'Don't think of becoming a writer, be a writer, even if you haven't written a thing; it is where we all start.'

'The biggest danger is writing is in pursuing a fantastic story line often results in taking leave of your common sense.'

'Each story, I like to think, has a home; got to know where that is to write good.'

'Writing and music are easy; first rip your guts out, after that it is much easier.'

'If you are not deeply and irretrievably in love with some thing or some body you won't be able to do great writing.'

'Calculating, scheming, and planning to tell the exact truth is the first step toward being a great writer.'

'The first step toward being a great writer is to be sick and tired of reality; other wise you can nonetheless be a good writer.'

'Other people telling you, you are great, is almost always bad news.'

'Thinking that you are perfect at being an artist is the first step toward failure.'

'A good musician, writer, artist doesn't create; the good artist merges with the creation process.'

'You should get up from the writing each day with your hair standing on end. That is what gets you up the next morning.'


'The simple fact is the test of a book is not whether others like it; the test is whether writing it changed you-same thing true for the author as well.'

'The good writer uses writing to look at and accept other's truths; the so-so writer seeks to justify his/her own.'

'For me writing a book is sometimes like trying to tell another person's truth, one I many times don't agree with. That is hard work.'

'My best writing is when I resist the temptation to make myself the star.'

'Some of my best writing is when my characters tell me to shut up and keep moving the pen.'

'Most times all I have when I start is a single line and I start eager to see what the piece will be about.'

'I write and rewrite until what is on the page makes my hair stand on end; then I know I have something.'

'Some times I realize some of my writings are just trying again and again until I get it write.'

'Heaven for a writer is when others love your novel as much as you do; hell is when they love a piece you thought was inferior.'


'The truth is you have to be smart enough to be lucky, and lucky enough to hang with those who have the smarts.'

'Irritation in life is riding in Life's Elevator watching a massive ego residing inside a minor talent, press the pent-house button.'

She said 'I was happy once-didn't like it.' He said 'I know.'


'All novels should be read aloud before a camp-fire, because that is their origin.'

'Writing is the only profession where in the guise of a character you can be any gender, age & occupation you want and no one is the wiser.'

'In writing I have the power of life and death over my characters but some find out and rebel and refuse to be knocked off.'

'Some days I wonder if my characters like me, especially the ones which know they are gone by chapter 20.'

'I start novels all the time, I start to start novels all the time, I start novels as a way of burning my mistakes. My characters hate that.


'My greatest strokes of genius lie in balled up pieces of paper in the waste-paper basket, unappreciated.'

'The ugliest thing in the world is one of my wonderfully written paragraphs which makes no sense whatsoever the next day.'

'My best writing is done while dreaming. My worst writing is when I awake and try to write it down.'

'Being a writer is like being God in a small world where almost all the time everyone is an atheist.'

'I have this character in my new book that is totally out of control, messing the whole thing up. Time for an accident.'


'Growing older is like waking up and suspecting that someone has been sleeping on your face. Call the police.'

'The problem with being right is that it is never permanent. The problem too is others don't think that way.'


'It is sure to be a bad day if first thing in the morning you can not find your head.'


'War is empathy lost resulting in murder; music, fiction and love allow for its recapture.'



'Dating is a form of covert shopping.'

'The problem with success is that it often destroys both humility and morality.'

'Failure so humbling it makes me feel moral again.'

'I write in different characters and voices and genders because I do not want to have to defend every stupid thing I have done.'

'In writing stories based upon one's own life the danger is that you might not liking your self as lead but then it is too late.'