Don’t dash off a six-thousand-word story before breakfast. Don’t write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will none the less get something that looks remarkably like it. Set yourself a “stint,” and see that you do that “stint” each day; you will have more words to your credit at the end of the year.
Jack London, author. Cited in: James Knapp Reeve (ed.) (1905) Practical Authorship. The Editor Publishing Company, New York, p. 143.
Don’t loaf and invite inspiration
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An artist’s job is not for small talk
Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, once told me a story about a reception she was at where Bob Dylan was in attendance. The business people there were quietly commenting on how unsociable Dylan seemed to them, not what they imagined an encounter with Dylan would be like. When that observation about Dylan's behavior and disposition were […]
Many an Orpheus and Arions make up a BachJohann Matthias Gesner was a colleague of Johann Sebastian Bach at St. Thomas’ School, Leipzig. He later worked on a commentary of the Roman author Quintilian (c. 35-100 A. D.). He included a comparison of Bach with the Classical lyre player: All these (outstanding achievements) … you would reckon trivial could you rise from the dead and […]
Vladimir Horowitz on encores”You see,” he said, ”I have a very substantial program, and after a substantial program, you can’t play a substantial encore. You play a little … ” at this, he strummed the air with his fingers, tinkling an imaginary piano. ”It is,” he said, ”anticlimactic.” Clyde Haberman, “3,500 Japanese Applaud Horowtiz for 14 Minutes”, The […]
The Ruffled KnightsTitle: The Ruffled Knights Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score
Beethoven and foodWhen he [Beethoven] came to Vienna, he knew nothing at all of the fine art of cooking. He cared little about good food, his favorite dish being a mess of macaroni with plenty of cheese on top. He liked, too, the simplest kind of stew, and fish from the Danube. Ignaz Seyfried reported that Beethoven […]
Performers and performancesBernstein on immersive performanceIt happens because you identify so completely with the composer, you’ve studied him so intently, that it’s as though you’ve written the piece yourself. You completely forget who you are or where you are and you write the piece write there. You just make it up as though you never heard it before. Because you […]
Szymanowski on RavelThe Polish composer Karol Szymanowski wrote of the French composer Maurice Ravel in 1925: Whether he writes a “Rapsodie espagnole”, “Mélodies grecques”, or the almost Viennese “La Valse”, he always remains one of the foremost fascinating representatives of the genius of his race. He assembles all the fundamental elements of that most beautiful culture in […]
Blessed Are They Who Dwell In Your House – Psalm 83 (84)Title: Blessed are they who dwell in your house Text: Psalm 83 (84): 2-3, 5-6, 9-10. R. v.5 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano (unison verses) Product medium: PDF score and partSAMPLE:
A man is not a failure until …What is luck? Is it being in the right place at the right time? I think it is something more. Luck is the active process of creating the life you want. So don’t just sit back and hope that good things will happen to you. Be courageous and go after what you want. Commit to […]