Writing Quotes
Keep trying, especially at first. It can be very discouraging if your submissions keep being rejected by a publisher, but if your work is what people want to read, you should get there eventually!
There's no such thing as the middle of nowhere. Something is happening everywhere. You just have to find the story in it.
I thought you could beat, pummel, and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies.
Rule #1: Writing is for the creative brain. Editing is for the critical brain. Separate them appropriately.
Act one: put your characters in a tree. Act two: throw rocks at them. Act three: get them down again.
I usually end have one outrageous minor character. He or she says the stuff I wish I had said in real life. Readers will love that character.
I was always taught to write the book you want to read. It's a philosophy I haven't wavered from since.
If you can't give the is-ness of a thing give the not-ness of it! The main thing is to hook up, get the wheels turning, sound off. When your brakes jam, try going in reverse. If often works.
Cutting words can cut your readers but if the intention is pure, the story will resonate loud and true.
Writers need to be open to trying new things. My first bestseller was a cookbook, and from that experience I learned things about marketing a book that benefitted me greatly.
Don't have every dialog go in a straight line to solve the problem. Let your characters argue, be sarcastic, disagree or joke around.
Read. Write. Read some more. Explore the universe through your writing. Practice and learn what moves you and what doesn't.
WHILE writing, just try to have fun with your ms. Enjoy the process, but push on. Always push toward the finish line!
I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear>
Any time a beloved character is killed off, it affects the audience in a very powerful way, especially in a series.
I've been rejected a hundred times. It just takes that one person who totally believes in you!
I think the first draft is so challenging because that elusive BALANCE is so challenging.
Not knowing stuff - like how your story ends before you start writing - is the seed of a lot of writer’s block.
The more time you can put between you and your manuscript, the more fresh your eyes become and the more mistakes you’ll catch.
What I can tell you is DO IT. Publish book one and get book two out as soon as possible. There are very few Harper Lee’s. Most of us are going to have to write a few books to get good at it.
Screw the beaten path! Do your thing. Write the best story you can. the rest will fall into place.
ALWAYS hook a reader. If a detail is unnecessary, it doesn't belong in your work, long or short! Make everything intriguing. If you have to describe a desk, make it awesome.
I learn from everything I do, right and wrong. I think it helps me grow as a writer and a person.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. A finished manuscript is AWESOME! So go, go, go! *waves pompoms*
Writing is like knitting. Stitch after stitch, word by word, and before you know it you have a book ... or a jumper!
Our lives make awesome stories, especially if you don't get too attached to the thread of your own narrative.
If you have nothing good to say about someone, write a book about them. - Carmen Fox, Life Motto
Park your ego and listen to your readers. They can be your best friend or your worst enemy. But chances are you'll learn something from them.
Motivated authors sacrifice TV time, sleep, hobbies, and even family time.
There is no such thing as lack of time, only unclear priorities and lack of motivation. It is better to abandon a project than to work on it half-heartedly for a protracted period of time.
Repeat the mantra: Writing is when I make the words. Editing is when I make them not shitty.
I shall be as brief as I can, for it is not by piling up detail that I hope to achieve my picture, but by putting the emphasis where I think it belongs.
If you want to be a writer, you have to keep writing, all the time, and when you're not writing, be thinking about and planning writing.
For every idea that's been done to DEATH, there's a child being BORN who hasn't read it yet. Don't kill your dragons.
You’re allowed to manipulate the environment, but not the character.
The only prophecy the artist can make with confidence is that he and his message will be misunderstood by a world that values all the wrong things.
