Writing Craft Quotes

Writing Craft Quote of the day

It's the writing that teaches you.

I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.

When you write, you want to get rid of the world, do you not? Of course you do. When you're writing, you're creating your own worlds.

A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.

The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.

There is no bombast, no similes, flowers, digressions, or unnecessary descriptions. Everything tends directly to the catastrophe.

When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life.

T[he rules of writing] require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it.

T[he rules of writing] require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.

What you need to remember is that there’s a difference between lecturing about what you know and using it to enrich the story. The latter is good. The former is not.

Never place your punch at the beginning of a column nor at the end. Sneak it in where it's least expected. Fill a whole column with drivel, just to get in that one important line.

However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.

I know it's difficult in the beginning. But, listen. If you have the impulse to write, do yourself a favor, do the world a favor, and write.

Just write. That's my only tip. And read. I guess that's two.

I personally believe that one learns to write by writing.

The moment I realize I just stayed up until five in the morning writing is that moment I know I am meant to be a writer.

A writer gets to live yet another life every time she creates a new story.

Writing a story is like going on a date—you will spoil it if you aren't living in the moment.

Most days, writing simply requires work-ethic, discipline, clarity, focus, time. Other days...it will demand absolutely everything of you.

Tell a story in lesser and simpler words.

I prefer the pen. There is something elemental about the glide and flow of nib and ink on paper.

Don’t break the rules when you haven’t fully figured them out yet.

Dreams are good at playing with your memory. They love leaving no trace behind and hate to show up once again in the morning.

The good writing ideas don’t have to be about political turmoil, mass killings, capitalism, racism, injustice, etc. Find that one idea that has deep roots in your heart.

When a solid first draft of an original tale is complete...you feel as if you could do anything.

Create a world in front of your readers where they can taste, smell, touch, hear, see, and move. Else they are likely going to move on to another book.

Today is the day that you create worlds, you change lives, you make a something, a someone, out of nothing.Today is the day you become a writer.

A writer can do without food for a few hours, but not without the sight of books.

Turn those deep feelings and obsessions of your heart into captivating pieces of literature.

As a writer: Aim toward becoming keen through a looking glass limn perspective on evoking pleasure of the senses with STRONG VERBS.

Ideas either age like fine wine or rot like potatoes over time.

On Writing: "A multitude of improbabilities can be forgiven as long as enough plausibility has been established.

If you are a singer, you must sing. If you are a dancer, you must dance. If you are a writer, you must write. Don’t suffocate your heart.

As you become a better writer, the writing becomes more difficult. You toil harder to tell a story in a lesser number of words.

Don’t interrupt when your characters take a flight of their own.

Cliches are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.

If you think there is no time to write now, there would never be.

Good writing just isn't that common.

We're not mad. We're inhabited

In fact, one could argue that the skill of the fiction writer boils down to the ability to exploit intensity.

If certain aspect needs to be inconsistent, it must better be consistently inconsistent throughout the story.

If you do not want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead...be read, or try coming back and pull the feet of those who are still alive instead!

Don't be afraid of what you're creating.

But if you don't understand that story is character and not just idea, you will not be able to breathe life into even the most intriguing flash of inspiration.

Let life be the foundation. Be brave. Wander deep inside yourself to the little room no one knows about. Fling the door wide open and write.

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.")

Storytellers don't show, they tell. I'm sticking with that.

The only 'ironclad rules' in writing fiction are the laws of physics and the principles of grammar, and even those can be bent.

Writing is a craft, being an author is work, and having readers and a following is a gift.

Be a good reader first, if you wish to become a good writer.