In any case, you can't have effective allegory in times when people are swept this way and that by momentary convictions, because everyone will read it differently. You can't indicate moral values when morality changes with what is being done, because there is no accepted basis of judgment. And you cannot show the operation of grace when grace is cut off from nature or when the very possibility of grace is denied, because no one will have the least idea of what you are about.

~ Flannery O'connor

Flannery O'connor Allegorical Interpretation Allegory Grace Moral Values Morality Perception World View Worldview Writing Writing Craft Writing Fiction

How many great gems were lost to thoughtand not put down to pen.You can but think of just a fewand then they're lost again.

~ L.f. Young

L.f. Young Humor Memory Loss Poem Writing Writing Craft

Does any program really improve anybody, as much as simply identifying them? And, after identifying them, not ruining them?

~ Chang-Rae Lee

Chang-Rae Lee Creative Writing Identity Mfa Programs Writing Writing Craft

Does any (MFA) program really improve anybody, as much as simply identifying them? And, after identifying them, not ruining them?

~ Chang-Rae Lee

Chang-Rae Lee Creative Writing Identity Mfa Programs Writing Craft

Characters begin as your children and become your teachers.

~ Chloe Thurlow

Chloe Thurlow Character Writing Craft

Be true to the writer within you; tell the story you're dying to tell in exactly the way you wish to tell it, and don't trust anyone who tries to sway you otherwise.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Richelle E. Goodrich Author Richelle Richelle Goodrich Stories Story Writer Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

Stories not only give us a much needed practice on figuring out what makes people tick, they give us insight into how we tick.

~ Lisa Cron

Lisa Cron Stories Women Writers On Writing Writing Writing Craft

poems are small moments of enlightenment

~ Natalie Goldberg

Natalie Goldberg Poems Poet Poetry Poetry Life Poetry Quotes Writing Writing Craft

...the most beautiful things don't always make you happy - often they make you weep...

~ John Geddes

John Geddes Beauty Happy Musing Weep Writing Craft Writing Process

...I’ve never understood the logic that says a work doesn’t need to be judged on the quality of its writing or characters simply because its genre. On the other hand, I’ve also never understood the logic of excusing a work from the need to tell a story worth telling about people worth knowing simply because the author writes pretty language or has some insights to offer.

~ Glen Hirshberg

Glen Hirshberg Genre Bending Genre Constraints Genre Conventions Genre Fiction Gingernuts Of Horror Interview Story Writers On Writing Writing Craft Writing Genre

An author is like an incompetent bricklayer - doesn't use mortar and keeps rearranging the bricks until someone tells him to stop.

~ Chris Everheart

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A writer creates from his mind; his creations emanate from the feelings enmeshed deep within his heart. From the fire burning within his soul, he gives shape to his thoughts. His thoughts start to breathe. Every sentence breathes with a purpose.

~ Avijeet Das

Avijeet Das Why I Write Writer Writing Writing Craft

I personally believe that one learns to write by writing.

~ Jack Jordan

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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.

~ Anastasia Bolinder

Anastasia Bolinder Writer Writers On Writing Writing Writing Craft Writing Inspiration Writing Life

Writing is a bitch. It's an itch that I love to scratch.

~ Ana Claudia Antunes

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If a pen can communicate our thoughts, dreams, and emotions and be the voice of our soul, then ink is the medium that carries the message.

~ Fennel Hudson

Fennel Hudson Ink Pen Writer Writers On Writing Writing Writing Craft

Each time I write, I reaffirm my soul.

~ Rob Bignell

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On a related note, I think for many of us, the first step in becoming a good writer is to write crap. In all seriousness, none of us are born knowing how to write. Almost all of us will produce a lot of really lousy stories before we start to get good. (Not all of us will choose to publish those lousy stories, but that's a whole separate discussion...)

~ Jim C. Hines

Jim C. Hines Writer Writers On Writing Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Process

...ugly interlopers threaten to choke off your story, depriving it of much-needed nutrition, sunlight and water. Identify and cut those weeds – the life-sucking adverbs, the shade-killing descriptions that don’t move the story forward, the crowding passive voice sentences.

~ Rob Bignell

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*Persistence is more important than perfection. If at first you don’t succeed, it doesn’t matter as long as you always try, try again; *Small improvements, made consistently, add up; *You cannot fail unless you quit. What most people call failures are merely unsuccessful experiments. Failures are bumps on the road as long as your story remains a work in progress; *You can always do better with what you already have - and often, it’s much smarter to find ways to do so than to invest time and money trying something entirely new as your next one sure thing; *And most importantly, being good doesn’t matter nearly as much as being slightly better than yesterday.

~ Johnny B. Truant

Johnny B. Truant Author Rules Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

Authors - trust in your vision.

~ V.m. Sawh

V.m. Sawh Author Writing Writing Advicevice Writing Craft

I am often told that the model of balance for the novelist should be Dante, who divided his territory up pretty evenly between hell, purgatory, and paradise. There can be no objection to this, but also there can be no reason to assume that the result of doing it in these times will give us the balanced picture it gave in Dante's. Dante lived in the thirteenth century, when that balance was achieved by the faith of his age. We live now in an age which doubts both fact and value, which is swept this way and that by momentary convictions. Instead of reflecting a balance from the world around him, the novelist now has to achieve one from a felt balance inside himself.

~ Flannery O'connor

Flannery O'connor Fiction Writing Novel Writing Perception Structure Writing Craft

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

~ Ashly Lorenzana

Ashly Lorenzana Show Don T Tell Storytelling Writing Craft

She logged in and read a few of her old posts, smiling at the issues she had raged about and shaking her head at how some of the rants now seemed pretentious and judgmental. She had grown so much without even realizing she had. Mythili typed out the draft, spicing it up subtly and after a last read, she published it. Admiring the brand new post on her main page, she realized she missed writing. She had barely written anything since her last by-line. Typing this out, she felt like she was back with a long-lost friend who understood her. It was like snuggling up in a warm blanket when a thunderstorm raged outside.

~ Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Shweta Ganesh Kumar Blogging Growing Up Writing Writing Craft

Sometimes writing is just rubbing words together long enough to make a fire.

~ Gillian Marchenko

Gillian Marchenko Memoir Writing Craft Writing Life Life Writing Process

Every artist needs canvass, mine just happens to be Microsoft Word and a Thesaurus.

~ Lori Lesko

Lori Lesko Artist Writing Craft

Words are the writer's sorcery, our dark arts and our sleight of hand. They're our enchantment and our temptation

~ Karl Wiggins

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A good part of the physical attraction [between the hero and heroine of a romance novel] comes to life during these exchanges as well, since language creates a meeting of the minds. I have long thought that these lines of dialogue carve out the lines of the central love relationship. The dialogue between the hero and heroine creates the central shape of the story. It is the verbal sculpture.

~ Julie Tetel Andresen

Julie Tetel Andresen Dialogue Romance Romance Novels Writing Craft Writing Romance

I should be writing ...

~ Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty Writer Quotes Writers On Writing Writing Craft Writing Life

I really learned how to write from Robert Louis Stevenson, Anthony Trollope, and de Maupassant.

~ Louis L'amour

Louis L'amour Writing Writing Craft Writing Life

Love the work: the grind, the dreaming, the distracted not-sleep, all of it. It’s the one thing in the job that will always be there, and the real pleasure in the profession. Everything else is luck.

~ Glen Hirshberg

Glen Hirshberg Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Life Writing Philosophy

Delicious days ahead for solitude and writing and, oh yes, the holiday meal with family. Live with my characters until term starts in 2012!

~ Stella Atrium

Stella Atrium Character Development Characters Writing Writing Craft Writing Life

I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration.

~ Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card Writing Writing Craft Writing Life

Writing is like surfing on a wild sea, in the middle of a moonless night, in a hailstorm, on a deserted island.Yeah... that about sums it up.

~ Heena Rathore P.

Heena Rathore P. Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Life Writing Philosophy Writing Process Writing Quotes

A real piece of writing is one in which the writer has tried to enrich not only the book, but also his understanding of the words. The words themselves have to be open to new ideas and suggestions, and the writer himself must have the audacity to attempt new things and to risk failure

~ Karl Wiggins

Karl Wiggins Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing From The Heart Writing Inspiration Writing Life Writing Philosophy Writing Process Writing Quotes

Every one of the big breakthroughs in the art of literature have possibly started as what many would call a ludicrous or even laughable idea as the writer occasionally balances a routine piece with an investment in the eccentric and untried. Over time, the reward is usually worth the risk

~ Karl Wiggins

Karl Wiggins Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing From The Heart Writing Inspiration Writing Life Writing Philosophy Writing Process Writing Quotes

What nobody tells you is that spending an entire day being paid to do something you love is sometimes a lot less fun than spending an entire day doing something you love for free.

~ Allison K. Williams

Allison K. Williams Writing Writing Craft Writing Life

When you feel that creeping self-doubt, acknowledge it. Write down your feelings in your journal... and then continue with your writing.

~ Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Life Writing Process

When you feel that creeping self-doubt, acknowledge it. Write down your feelings in your journal in your journal... and then continue with your writing.

~ Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Life Writing Process

Being a writer is not just about typing. It’s also about surviving the rollercoaster of the creative journey.

~ Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Life Writing Process
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