The war had made a man of him! It had coarsened him and hardened him. There was no other way to look at it. It had made him reach a point at which he would no longer stand unbearable things.
Ford Madox FordRead
The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story - and then your story!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of novel writing lies in the story itself, prioritizing it above all else.
Ford Madox Ford emphasizes the fundamental importance of the story in novel writing. He underscores that a writer's primary focus must be the narrative they wish to convey, suggesting that the strength and quality of the story are paramount to the success of the novel. By repeating the phrase 'your story,' he highlights the singular focus and dedication needed in the craft of writing.
Themes
StoryNovelWritingNarrativeArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, one might say this quote to encourage fellow writers to focus on their narratives.
More from Ford Madox Ford
All quotes βMind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.
Ford Madox FordRead
There is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to her for the renewal of his courage, for the cutting asunder of his difficulties. And that will be the mainspring of his desire for her. We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.
Ford Madox FordRead
You have to wait together - for a week, for a year, for a lifetime, before the final intimate conversation may be attained ... and exhausted. So that ... That in effect was love.
Ford Madox FordRead
Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.
Ford Madox FordRead
It is not merely that people must die and people must suffer, if not here, then there. But what is dreadful is that the world goes on and people go on being stupidly cruel - in the old ways and all the time.
Ford Madox FordRead
Similar quotes
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.
Hannah ArendtRead
Hairdressers are a wonderful breed. You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye.
Vidal SassoonRead
Sometimes it's difficult directing yourself on film because you can't quite separate yourself from the subject.
Stanley TucciRead
There's only two givens with choosing acting as a profession: one is you will always be unemployed, always, and it doesn't matter how much money you make, you're still always going to be unemployed; and that you have no power.
Frances McdormandRead
I'm a great believer in not over-thinking lyrics. You might become technically better as a songwriter, but you lose what originally made your songs great.
Paul StanleyRead
To build means to make architecture real on the borders of knowledge.
Frei OttoRead