Literary Birthday – 2 September – Jack M. Bickham

Jack M. Bickham was born 2 September 1930, and died 25 July 1997.

Seven Quotes

1. Writers write. Everyone else makes excuses.
2. Fiction is movement. Description is static… Whenever you try to inflict on your readers a detailed description, your story stops… Description must be worked in carefully, in bits and pieces, to keep the reader seeing, hearing, and feeling your story world.
3. Honing your ability to observe accurately – and to write down what you’ve noticed – must be part of your lifelong commitment to fiction.
4. Your style and attitude in your stories should be like a clean pane of glass through which the reader sees the action. If you pose and posture in your copy, you’ll draw attention to you as a writer, rather than to what’s happening on your page. And that’s always bad.
5. In fiction conflict not only reveals character, it virtually creates character as the story person is tested again and again in harrowing struggle.
6. Just because a character is is strongly goal-motivated and active doesn’t mean he has to be a superhero. A character may be active – refuse to give up or stop trying – yet still be scared or sometimes unsure of himself.
7. Fiction isn’t reality . . . it’s better.

Jack M. Bickham was an American author who wrote 75 novels. He is also the author of books on how to write, including The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes. 

 by Amanda Patterson

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