From John Steinbeck, On Writing
Mar
26
2026
“If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.”
~ John Steinbeck, 1902 – 1968
This is only one of John Steinbeck’s ‘Six Tips for the Aspiring Writing’, but I’ve chosen to feature it alone because it relates so closely to Monday’s post on “Shooting the Rapids of ‘Why’ and ‘What.’ ”
In terms of bypassing and coming back, that is also a tool I use, but it only works of you don’t need to resolve the problem at hand in order to continue at all!
As for not belonging there, sometimes it doesn’t even belong in the same book, which can be a sobering realization. 😀
