writers on writing quotes
I think that you have to believe in your destiny; that you will succeed, you will meet a lot of rejection and it is not always a straight path, there will be detours so enjoy the view. Michael York, 153. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. There are three rules for writing a novel. The difference between fiction and reality? ", "There's no such thing as writer's block. It can be reassuring to hear the words of literary greats celebrating a few of the very best parts of being a writer. All stories have to at least try to explain some small portion of the meaning of life. Gene Weingarten, 167. So write your story as it needs to be written. Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Takes one minute! If you need a boost of inspiration, look no further than this list of the 23 best Stephen King quotes from On Writing. If you wait for inspiration to write youre not a writer, youre a waiter. Dan Poynter. If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write. Martin Luther, 163. Which is why these other words of wisdom and writing quotes exist! The story must strike a nerve in me. I go to bed at nine p.m. A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. Thomas Mann, 98. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good. No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. Robin Williams, 119. 50 Motivational Quotes On Writing - Writers Write ~Mary Heaton Vorse. ", "My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. So just write. ", "Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within. Gustave Flaubert, 101. ", "Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. That's right even the J.K Rowling's and Ernest Hemingway's of this world. The writer is an explorer. The first draft is a skeleton. If I understood the world, it would be harder for me to write these books. Mo Willems, 24. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. George Bernard Shaw, 10. We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this. You fail only if you stop writing. Ray Bradbury, 65. Toni Morrison, 11. Its none of their business that you have to learn to write. Its one of the ways I stay sane. "The writer is an explorer. Anyone who says writing is easy isnt doing it right. Amy Joy. The great thing about good writers is that they are so quotable! You may not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life. Consider that youve addressed it to the editor who can appreciate my work and it has simply come back stamped Not at this address. Make making mistakes a good thing. Meet your dream editor on Reedsy. Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. [] All they do is show you've been to college. Kurt Vonnegut, 132. For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word. Catherine Drinker Bowen, 106. You fail only if "You fail only if you stop writing." (Click to Tweet) Ray Bradbury 2. Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. Part 3. Most people don't see any. They give strength when they are wide apart. 45+ Quotes About Writing from Famous Writers | Audible.com ", "The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. 41. You cant waste time. Ursula K. Le Guin. If it's good, you'll find out. Part 2. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. Then write. Wells, 25. Read intensely. Explaining the difference between ensure, insure, and assure with sample sentences and a memory trick to keep them apart. When your story is ready for a rewrite, cut it to the bone. As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand. Ernest Hemingway, 100. The well of inspiration, were afraid, often does run dry. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up. White, Charlottes Web, 46. Its the execution that is all important. George R.R. Jenna Yoon shares how her daughter helped inspire her to believe in her own dream of becoming an author and how that led to her Lia Park series of middle-grade novels. Scott . Why You Became a Writer, According to George Orwell. One does not recognize it in the first place; often for some reason one fears it; one watches it with keenness and compares it jealously and suspiciously with the old feeling that one knew. "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." The judging comes later. Its not even the sum total of a whole story. ", "The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. The secret to editing your work is simple: You need to become itsreader instead of itswriter. Zadie Smith, 46. Its the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. Paulo Coelho, 13. Make Good Art. There is only one right form for a story and, if you fail to find that form, the story will not tell itself. Mark Twain. Creativity is a combination of discipline and childlike spirit. Robert Greene, 11. Here are the writing quotes to replenish it and, hopefully, remind you that there might be a story idea waiting for you just around the corner of life. It doesnt matter how many book ideas you have if you cant finish writing your book. Joe Bunting, 44. Dont labor over a little cameo work in which every word is to be perfect. I have this one nasty habit. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed. Ernest Hemingway. Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job: Its always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins. Neil Gaiman, 42. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Robert Frost, 29. Or, if theyre any good, theyre a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Love of the Last Tycoon, 43. That's right even the J.K Rowling's and Ernest Hemingway's of this world. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. Check out our list of quotations from famous authors, poets, novelists, and others. 9 Virginia Woolf Quotes About Writing for Writers (and Readers) Join a community of over 1 millionauthors. With examples. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. I write entirely to find out what Im thinking, what Im looking at, what I see, and what it means. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. I think all writing is a disease. Dont consider it rejected. Writers live twice. Natalie Goldberg, 122. Writing is the painting of the voice. Voltaire, 12. Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil but there is no way around them. Isaac Asimov, 143. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. Was I bitter? 20 Funny Quotes About Writing | BRYN DONOVAN 55 Motivational Writing Quotes from Famous Authors Then see what happens. If you fall in love with the vision and not your words, the rewriting will become easier. Nora DeLoach, 49. I believe myself that a good writer doesnt really need to be told anything except to keep at it. Chinua Achebe, 69. Writing quote posters. We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. Anais Nin, 115. I have 10 or so, and thats a lot. The only thing to do is ignore it, and remember what Vincent van Gogh said in one of his letters about the painter's fear of the blank canvasthe canvas, he said, is far more afraid of the painter. Philip Pullman, Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling, 17. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. Our free writing app lets you set writing goals and track your progress, so you can finally write that book! The first step is the hardest, and that goes double for writers. ", "All the information you need can be given in dialogue. "You don't start out writing good stuff. "Get it down. You start out writing crap and thinking its good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. Mark Twain, 130. If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it at an hour when it isnt expecting it. H.G. But these quotes are particularly inspirational, largely because they're meant to rev you up and get your mind churning: "I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn." Anne Frank "No Black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much.' Find the perfect editor for yournextbook. No one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell. Charles de Lint, 28. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 2. Every step is an advance into a new land. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 4. I have drawers full of or I did have drawers full of rejection slips. Fred Saberhagen, 157. Most people don't see any. ", "It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed. By popular demand, I've put together a periodically updated reading list of all the famous advice on writing presented here over the years, featuring words of wisdom from such masters of the craft as Kurt Vonnegut, Susan Sontag, Henry Miller, Stephen King, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Susan Orlean, Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, and more. Many artists draw much of their inspiration from introspection, and writers are no different. In a weird way, it's one of the great inspirational quotes for writers, because it's so reassuring! Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. Somerset Maugham, 128. The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power. Toni Morrison, 2. I alwayswas a write. Ursula K. Le Guin, 19. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. Annie Dillard, 95. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. 49 Motivational Quotes for Writers Let's jump in. ~ William Zinsser Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. ", "Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen. Words can be like X-rays if you use them properlytheyll go through anything. Writing isn't something that makes me happy like a good cup of coffee. Look at it, try to make sense of it. The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. ", "Literature is all, or mostly, about sex. (4) They're geniuses at putting their emotions into words. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil. Truman Capote, 87. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. When all else fails, write what your heart tells you. 12 George R.R. Martin Quotes for Writers and About Writing No matter how passionate you are about it, writing can be difficult. Just write every day of your life. ", "No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader's intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing. I write Five common traits of good writers: (1) They have something to say. I read that, and its like getting on a taxiway. Now put foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau, 16. [spacer height="20px"] "You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer." - Isaac Asimov It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly. C. J. Cherryh, 88. 37. Remove the comma, replace the comma, remove the comma, replace the comma. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. By that time, they should have already been editing it themselves. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them. Gore Vidal, 105. I read and feel that same compulsion; the desire to possess what he has written, which can only be subdued by writing something myself. Patti Smith, M Train, 28. It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer. Gerald Brenan, 71. 1. Here's a breakdown, with plenty of examples. Examine every word you put on paper. We write to taste life in the moment and in retrospect. Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. Henry David Thoreau, 92. 10. The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself. Albert Camus, 164. It is a compulsion, so I cant really say where the desire came from; Ive always had it. ", William Shakespeare (from A Midsummer Nights Dream), "If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. Jack Kerouac, 28. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. William Strunk Jr. and E. B. On first drafts: It is completely raw, the sort of thing I feel free to do with the door shut its the story undressed, standing up in nothing but its socks and undershorts. Stephen King, 62. Let them think you were born that way. But its definitely true for writing.) Im writing a first draft and reminding myself that Im simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles. Shannon Hale, 47. Lewis, 121. 53. Eliot, 108. ", "Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portrait. Ive failed dreadfully if you have to read a sentence twice to figure out what I meant. Ken Follett, 139. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. Benjamin Franklin, 111. 1342 quotes have been tagged as writers-on-writing: Stephen King: 'Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or maki. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it. Don Roff, 89. When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, I am going to produce a work of art. I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. George Orwell, 15. I know a lot of talented ruins. Read everything trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. Meg Rosoff, 33. We are cups, quietly and constantly being filled. Absolutely. Find a quiet place, use a humble pen., There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer's time, nothing harder to keep track of. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. The quotes and aphorisms gathered together below range across more than 2,000 years of the practice of the craft. Trained fighter and author Carla Hoch critiques a fight scene from start to finish, what works, what doesnt, and tips for making our fight scenes stronger. If you want life-long friendship and selfless camaraderie, join the army and learn to kill. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Now, with the second heart, smash the first one into bits. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. http://writeathome.com http://blog.writeathome.com. And that's not why I'll finish.- Ryan Reudell Don't forget- no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.- Charles de Lint Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. C. S. Lewis. Confused about when to use a semicolon and how it's different from other punctuations? Keep asking questions because people will always want to know the answer. Theres nothing to writing. Everywhere I go, Im asked if the universities stifle writers. You bet your sweet ass I was hurt. This post can help you set writing resolutions tailored to your individual needs. Here are 99 quotes from some of the World's most successful writers! Learn from the masters of the craft. Our quotes are for writers and by writersabout writing, rejection, inspiration, motivation, and reading. I know these things. Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences. Sylvia Plath, 102. As for Write what you know, I was regularly told this as a beginner. Whenever I'm asked what advice I have for young writers, I always say that the first thing is to read, and to read a lot. What I want and what I fear. Joan Didion, 5. Tellers of stories with ink on paper, not that they matter anymore, have been either swoopers or bashers. Writing is an act of faith, not a grammar trick. E.B. Writing Quotes: 101 Quotes for Writers to Inspire You It cannot be done. ", "Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. First rule: Do not use semicolons. ", "People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. Thats what you ought to write about. Raymond Carver, 17. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you. Whether you're a fiction writer, nonfiction writer, or poet, these inspirational quotes on writing will put the pen back in your hand with renewed passion. We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down. Kurt Vonnegut, 74. Every author has a bad day; it doesn't matter how experienced you are. Ive been writing since I was six. You can close your eyes and wait for the thoughts and feelings to arrive to get your good writing ideas flowing. Inspirational Writing Quotes from Famous Authors - Writer's Digest (8 James Patterson Quotes for Writers and About Writing). However, we hope that this post has helped inspire you in some way! They show me I try. Sylvia Plath, 145. Every secret of a writers soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works. Virginia Woolf, 160. Martin quotes for writers and about writing from the author of A Game of Thrones, A Storm of Swords, and A Dance With Dragons. (5) They possess an insatiable curiosity, constantly asking Why and How., Dont try to be different.