On strategy:

“Break the big work into the smallest possible units — in this case, 1,000- word essays. Divide the marathon into a series of one-mile runs.“

On publishing:

“In an era of multiple media, use various platforms to publish and market your ideas.”

On gathering:

“Save string. Collect things others would throw away. Before you know it, you’ll have a body of knowledge and evidence to support your writing.”

On process:

“Perfect is the enemy of good, especially at the beginning. Lower your standards as you draft a work; raise them as you move toward revision.”

Read the complete essay here.

Last night Powell’s hosted Ursula K. Le Guin, who reworked and re-released her book on writing, Steering the Craft. She spoke about writing. Here are some highlights:

On writing:

“Every story must make its own rules and obey them.”

“In art there are no easy steps.”

“I am not comfortable with using art as a means to gain an end other than its own end.”

“Art and craft are completely interdependent, but we tend to disconnect them.”

“We acquire skills that suit the machine better than they suit us. The user gets used.”

“The more you learn to hear your prose as you write it the better your sentences will flow.”

“To write a story is to perform it, or to ask your reader to perform it. You’ve got to make it performable.”

“I have never started writing anything that I didn’t think I knew what the ending was going to be. Sometimes I was wrong.”

On revision:

“There comes a point when you just have to send it away.”

“I can’t tell you why you’re stuck in your middle. That’s between you and the story.”

On influence:

“Everybody influences me. That’s the trouble! Even the ones I don’t like. They sort of de-influence me.”

“Don’t let the old white men scare you, they’re on their way out!”