Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
The worst advice? 'Don't listen to the critics.' I think that you really ought to listen to the critics, because sometimes they're telling you something is broken that you can fix.
Interpretation
Listening to critics can provide valuable feedback and help improve your work.
In this quote, Stephen King emphasizes the importance of paying attention to criticism rather than dismissing it outright. Critics may offer insights that highlight flaws or areas for improvement in one’s work, suggesting that constructive criticism can be a beneficial tool for growth and development. Ignoring critics might mean missing an opportunity to refine and enhance what you create.
In practice
During a workshop, you can quote this to encourage participants to embrace constructive feedback.
Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Give me a fruitful error anytime, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections.
You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.
A half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.
I'm not out trying to prove anything. I'm sort of finished with that, so I get to play in other sandboxes and try and figure out what I like and I'm interested in.
In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it.
It is better to disappoint people with the truth than to appease them with a lie.
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