"Writing is hard work. Generating stories that catch people's attention and holding it are very difficult"
About this Quote
David Ogden Stiers distills a hard, unfashionable truth: good writing is labor, not luck. Stories that seize attention and keep it do not spring fully formed from a flash of inspiration; they are built through arduous choices about structure, rhythm, character, and stakes. The first grab is only half the task. The sustained hold requires pacing that breathes, arcs that pay off, and language that carries both clarity and surprise.
Stiers knew this from the inside of performance. On M*A*S*H, where he embodied the fastidious Major Winchester, laughs and pathos depended on the bones of the script and the calibration of each beat. Stage work and voice acting taught him how dialogue must land on the ear, how scenes need turns, how a moment must be earned. Such experiences sharpen an appreciation for the writer’s unseen grind: drafting, cutting, moving a reveal two pages later, reworking a line until it sounds inevitable.
Catching attention is seductive because it can be engineered with shock or novelty, but holding it demands coherence and emotional truth. Readers and viewers will give only so much patience; they want momentum, but also meaning. That means a writer has to manage tension without cheapness, deliver information without clogging the flow, and balance familiarity with freshness so the story feels both grounded and alive.
The sentiment also rejects the romantic myth of the effortless genius. What looks effortless on the page is often the residue of discipline: research, outlining, revision, feedback, and more revision. Respect for the audience sits at the core of that discipline. To hold someone’s mind for an hour or even a page is a gift and a responsibility. Stiers’s reminder is tonic for anyone making narratives today: treat attention as precious, and do the hard work that transforms spark into spell.
Stiers knew this from the inside of performance. On M*A*S*H, where he embodied the fastidious Major Winchester, laughs and pathos depended on the bones of the script and the calibration of each beat. Stage work and voice acting taught him how dialogue must land on the ear, how scenes need turns, how a moment must be earned. Such experiences sharpen an appreciation for the writer’s unseen grind: drafting, cutting, moving a reveal two pages later, reworking a line until it sounds inevitable.
Catching attention is seductive because it can be engineered with shock or novelty, but holding it demands coherence and emotional truth. Readers and viewers will give only so much patience; they want momentum, but also meaning. That means a writer has to manage tension without cheapness, deliver information without clogging the flow, and balance familiarity with freshness so the story feels both grounded and alive.
The sentiment also rejects the romantic myth of the effortless genius. What looks effortless on the page is often the residue of discipline: research, outlining, revision, feedback, and more revision. Respect for the audience sits at the core of that discipline. To hold someone’s mind for an hour or even a page is a gift and a responsibility. Stiers’s reminder is tonic for anyone making narratives today: treat attention as precious, and do the hard work that transforms spark into spell.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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