Writing

Write Garbage, Edit Brilliantly! ….Writer’s Quote Wednesday

jacquelineobyikocha

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If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.
– Somerset Maugham

It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.
– C. J. Cherryh

The above quotes repeats in my head when I think of my writing and encourages me to trudge along.

Someone once asked me how I decided that I am writer and my simple response that I have lots of stories to tell which left a blank look on her face made me feel as if I spoke Greek. Now and again, her blank face surfaces in my memory and I begin to question myself.

When I am struggling to put down the riotous thoughts in my head into a readable format, the question rises again and sometimes, a tiny voice of doubt tells me, ‘YOU ARE A FRAUD!’ WRITER YOU ARE NOT!

I have learnt to slap and shut the impish voice down, to go ahead and scribble my nonsense and leave it at that.

Well, seeing such quotes from established authors does tickle my fancy bone, and I have come to realize that there is no perfect writer. We  just write that which needs to be written and leave it at that.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha – Girl writer 😉

Written for Writer’s quote Wednesday.

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Published by jacquelineobyikocha

A wordsmith with a vivid imagination, an eager mind and a burning desire to carve out tales. As I journey with my muse to that land of all possibilities and self discovery, I hope my personal evolution will serve as a beacon of inspiration for anyone who chooses to stop by.

44 thoughts on “Write Garbage, Edit Brilliantly! ….Writer’s Quote Wednesday”

    1. Babe, you get the drift. I would rather keep up with writing the nonsense and editing than not writing. That’s not even an option.
      Let me use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 2 people

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    1. Thank you Diane. I believe we all struggle with these things, but we just keep slapping the words together 🙂
      I would now use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. It’s why I love my tribe of all these beautiful writers. Thank you Van 🙂
      I would now use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Totally true 🙂 I would now use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Thank you Joan 🙂 I would now use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

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  6. Hello Girl writer,

    This post really resonated with me.

    There was a time when I assumed that for a person to deserve the title “Writer”, then they had to have published a book.

    But quite simply, anyone who writes is a writer. I believe that and it’s made me take my writing more seriously. You are so right! Just write, leave it at that and enjoy the love affair with words. 😀

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Well summarized my dear. When we start worrying and fretting over title, we lose the essence.
      I would now use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. For sure Buki. It’s gotta give. Thank you my dear 🙂
      Let me use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. I get humbled to see a writer of your calibre also get a thought like “Writer you are not!” I for one have been following your writing style since the day I found your blog!I not only read your posts multiple times to absorb the language, I also make a mental note of the lines I find appealing!I refer your blog to all my friends new to blogging and I leave no opportunity to commend you for the impact you have in my blogging journey! 🙂

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    1. Wow! What a lovely comment. Thank you so much for this encouraging boost. I really do appreciate your words. I think that we all have little bits of self doubts that raise it’s head now and again, but we learn to push it back and forge ahead. I really do appreciate your commendation. My regards.
      Now Let me use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I feel happy to get acknowledged! 🙂 And I am surely looking forward to the Brunch Party! I am curios about it already!Thanks a lot for the invitation Jacqueline!

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  10. I totally agree with the quote by Maugham. I do have questions when it comes to editing. When someone says that no book should be offered for sale unless it has been professionally edited I generally assume that person to be a professional editor. In this digital age the explosion of indie authors has attracted many thousands of would be editors to the table. How can an author vet them and choose which is actually an editor and which might be just some person with spell check and a pay pal account to receive payments. When seeking an editor are we looking for someone to correct sloppy sentence structure, find gaps in plot development, look for anachronisms, or what? Because storytelling is so highly subjective, should the literary taste of the editor match that of the author? And lastly, how does a potential reader know that a book is fabulously edited, poorly edited, or not edited at all. It would seem that such a discovery is made after the purchase. If so, poor editing will prevent a second sale, not the first.

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    1. You’ve really raised very interesting thought provoking points here. Honestly, I have pondered over the deluge of would be editors out there and it leaves so many questions begging to be answered.
      Storytelling is truly highly subjective and as such, my thoughts are the editing should be focused on the grammar, spelling and structure.
      That said,
      Let me use the opportunity to invite you to the Bloggers brunch that I am hosting over the weekend Saturday – Sunday. I believe it will be fun to mingle with others. The invitation is titled, It’s Brunch Party Time. I will send one out again tomorrow. My regards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    2. Let me use the opportunity to invite you to my bloggers brunch taking place this weekend Saturday to Sunday here at my blog. The title of the invitation is It’s A Brunch Party. All you need to bring along is yourself, cookies or cakes or whatever you want us to taste and a sack of love 😉 It’s usually fun.

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  13. As if you were in my head writing this! Profound! I actually I’m a bad editor though as most of my posts are written in a flash and posted within minutes. I tend lose the ‘spirit’ of the inspiration if I didn’t post it immediately.
    However i will take to your advise though. Thanks so much for sharing plus you write beautifully well too. I throway salute

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    1. Ah, you make me feel good with your commendation. Thank you. I can understand the part about writing in a flash and posting. I have over 50 articles in my draft that I wrote in a flash and haven’t posted because they need editing. I wait on a day that I have some time, I edit one of them.

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      2. My pleasure. Not sure I did but let me use this opportunity to invite you over for the brunch party that’s taking place on my blog as we speak The title is BRUNCH PARTY live link. Do step in and mingle with other bloggers 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I have been trying to join in, network is really messing up here. Really bad and frustrating
        I’do hope you see this though. I

        Liked by 1 person

I love it when you decorate my heart with your words..

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