Writing Tips Quotes - Page 2

Don't let society's defined genre hold you down, be a free spirit and just write, let society be the one to decide where each piece fits in.

Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in fact, only one rule in writing fiction: Whatever works, works.

How do you feel when you read stuff written by dead authors? A visit by a ghost?

Yeah, episodic doesn't work. Your coolest character needs something big and meaningful to do. Otherwise, well, it's just narrative shit.

That's what I love most about writers--they're such lousy actors.

When a person sets out to learn from others and not to teach others he becomes a true writer.

You say you have nothing to write about? How do you find things to talk about? You can write about those things you like to talk about, that's your area of expertise

We need to boost each other to get to the top. It is much more effective than stepping on each other.

Writing is self-pleasure

The power of the writer is to capture the thoughts live and present them as they appeared in his mind

The biggest thing for aspiring writers I would say is that writing is hard work. You can’t sustain the fantasy that it should somehow be otherwise for you because you are more special or more committed than other aspiring writers. You aren’t sitting down to be entertained by the gods or to entertain yourself. At times it can be a thrill and it feels more like play, but we are easily deceived by whatever pleasures or rewards writing can offer. Exhilarating work is still work. Is it work, or is it play? And the answer is “yes.” Does it sometimes feel like it comes easily or naturally? Yes. But did it really come easily? No. Writing doesn’t offer the rhythmic endorphin hit you get scrolling down the screen clicking on memes. Are you up for the work it is going to take to become successful as a writer? It is going to be harder than you think. You are submitting to forces and to a process that you can’t fully control. There is maybe a tiny bit more control if you self-publish, and there is no shame in doing that, but even that is going to introduce hard work. Probably harder than you think. If my next novel can’t find a home, I’m not above self-publishing it in some capacity and then moving on to the next project.

Choose noble goals for your heroes.Make them Sympathize with the poor, collaborates on the good goals, always step forward for the good actions, the first ones to do the right things, care to reserve others rights, and respect the laws, traditions and values.

Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.

Writing as a creative art flourishes only when there are no rules. Rules stifle you from entering the silent and forbidden spaces where the core of the story is waiting to be revealed.

When I write sometimes I strike gold, sometimes I labor in vain and keep producing rubbish

If you are afraid of the critics you will never write a word

The words of his various writing instructors and professional mentors over the years came back to him at times like these, and he found a new understanding in their advice: Writing is rewriting. The rough draft is just that. You can’t polish what you haven’t written. Things that made for a normal life—like a daily routine that followed the sun—took a back seat to times like these, and he exulted in that change because it served as proof that his writing was indeed the most important thing in his life. It wasn’t a conscious choice on his part, like deciding to repaint the bathroom or go buy the groceries, but an overarching reallocation of his existence that was as undeniable as breathing. Day turned into night, breakfast turned into dinner, and the laptop or the writing tablet beckoned even when he was asleep. He would often awake with a new idea—as if he’d merely been on a break and not unconscious—and he would see the empty seat before the desk not as his station in some pointless assembly line, but as the pilot’s seat in a ship that could go anywhere.

Some artists benefit less from being interviewed than they do from being left alone.

Maugham then offers the greatest advice anyone could give to a young author: "At the end of an interrogation sentence, place a question mark. You'd be surprised how effective it can be.

Every book is worth reading. If it cannot make you wiser it will make you a critic

Many writers write because they’ve been there, seen that, did it and burnt their fingers

Today almost everybody is a writer, the enormous publish button on blogs and websites begs you everywhere to click on it! And bam you are a writer. To hell with agents and publishing houses and rejection letters. Immortality for you is on the click of a mouth! We are advancing at the speed of light! You can become an author at 140 characters. To hell with long winding sentences and long hours of scratching the head, the immortals of today instantly get a "like" and they instantly enter the pantheon! They seat side by side Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, St Paul, Buddha, Martin Luther, Rousseau, Bangambiki…

Books are like rivers, meandering this way and that, but taking us on a steady, flowing course to somewhere different.

You cannot write if you are not on fire

People speak even after their death. Only do speak those who have recorded their speech in writing before they die, the rest go silent forever

The only difference between writers and people who don't write is that writers aren't afraid to display their demons.

Someone asked me, 'How do you write a book?' I said, 'I live with a pen in one hand.

The skill of writing needs much patience, practicing, and time. There is no good writing from a quick effort, or a confused writer.

Here's one prophecy the writer can make - you'll never be rich and you'll probably be poor.

You never know what you will write until you write it