A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.
— W. Somerset Maugham
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picture book and middle-grade author
You’re right, Caroline, all writing should read effortless. Too bad some days the writing feels like walking through mud.
Although, the end result never fails to give me a buzz!
Maureen. www. thepizzagang.com
Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when the words just flow out of you! Then when someone reads them they compliment your “voice,” it makes you feel energized.
It’s like Yoga. All the pain/effort is below the surface. :0)
I love this quote. A lot of my writing seems like accidents, not necessarily of the happy variety though!
True of all great art!
Great quote!
Ah, but to us writers, the words often come with the toil and sweat of hours of labor! And little do the readers know exactly how much we bled as we wrote!
I love Maugham.
Such an inspiring quote!
sarahnoelsmusings.blogspot.com
I love it! Thanks, Caroline. 🙂
Don’t you know it. And yet even the most effortless writing took an unknown amount of time to perfect!
It’s amazing to me how it can sometimes take so much work to make something sound so effortless!
I love that quote 🙂
ah, but so much easier said than done. a great aspiration, though. and true.
And ‘Easy reading is damned hard writing.”
Good quote.
So, so true.
Thanks for posting this quote – Maugham is one of my favorite writers. Happy to find your blog.
I always hear the words of my favorite college professor in my head when I write, “Good writing should be easy for the reader, hard for you [the writer].”
This quote reminded me of his words. I love it.