[G]reat stories communicate simple truths that reflect the poetic dimensions of the human soul. Not only do powerful characters help us understand our lives, their stories reflect our core values as human beings.

~ Kate Wright

Kate Wright Screenwriting Writing Craft Writing Process

There’s a difference between the ‘art’ of writing and the ‘craft’ of writing. Art is subjective, its beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but craft is objective. There is a right way and a wrong way to craft.

~ Gerard De Marigny

Gerard De Marigny Art Writing Writing Craft Writing Philosophy Writing Process

Novels were not arguments; a story worked, or it didn't, on its own merits. What did it matter if a detail was real or imagined? What mattered was that the detail seemed real, and that it was absolutely the best detail for the circumstance. That wasn't much of a theory, but it was all Ruth could truly commit herself to at the moment. It was time to retire that old lecture, and her penance was to endure the compliments of her former credo.

~ John Irving

John Irving Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Process

Don't fool yourself. Talking about writing is not the same as actually doing it.

~ Christy Hall

Christy Hall Writers On Writing Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Process

You write what you know, and I know rock and roll.

~ Greg Kihn

Greg Kihn Rock And Roll Writing Craft Writing From The Heart Writing Process

If you are serious, and you want to make a living as an author, then you need to hustle. Period. If you can't make that quality, then you need to concentrate on your craft and practice more. One other thing, quality comes with practice. If you are prolific, then you become a better writer because you are writing. The more you do anything the better at it you will become. So in a way, quantity does add to quality.

~ Larry Correia

Larry Correia Writing Writing Advice Writing Books Writing Craft Writing Process

In quickness is truth. The more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.

~ Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing From The Heart Writing Process

Always remember that writing is an alliance between author and reader. With every line we put down on the page, we need to leave room for the reader's imagination and intellect.

~ Hal Zina Bennett

Hal Zina Bennett Writing Writing Craft Writing Process

Some writers are the kind of solo violinists who need complete silence to tune their instruments. Others want to hear every member of the orchestra—they’ll take a cue from a clarinet, from an oboe, even. I am one of those. My writing desk is covered in open novels. I read lines to swim in a certain sensibility, to strike a particular note, to encourage rigour when I’m too sentimental, to bring verbal ease when I’m syntactically uptight. I think of reading like a balanced diet; if your sentences are baggy, too baroque, cut back on fatty Foster Wallace, say, and pick up Kafka, as roughage. If your aesthetic has become so refined it is stopping you from placing a single black mark on white paper, stop worrying so much about what Nabokov would say; pick up Dostoyevsky, patron saint of substance over style.

~ Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith Writing Writing Craft Writing Process

For me, not knowing your theme until your finished is like using a scalpel to turn a kangaroo into Miss Universe – there will be a lot of deep cuts, and there’s a high chance it won’t work.

~ David G. Allen

David G. Allen Theme Writing Craft Writing Process

Most—but not all—of the writers I knew then were young men who cherished their independence, were unconcerned about job security, and were serious about their writing. They didn’t want to be anyone’s employee if it interfered with their writing. They were halfway or all the way outside the mainstream and were often not interested in becoming part of the burgeoning corporate society. They had more freedom than your average American.

~ Sterling Lord

Sterling Lord Writing Craft Writing Process

Poetic license is not a license to scribe recklessly.

~ C. Kennedy

C. Kennedy Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Humor Writing Philosophy Writing Process

Writers don't suffer from insanity, they depend upon it!

~ Avijeet Das

Avijeet Das Insanity Quotes On Life Quotes On Writing Writers Inspiration Writers Life Writers On Writing Writers Quotes Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Philosophy

A writer must expect other people to criticize their work and open-mindedly consider all worthwhile suggestions. Martial arts master Bruce Lee advised anyone attempting to master a difficult enterprise to learn from other people but also liberally experiment and judiciously draw from our own well of intelligence and talent. ‘Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Kilroy J. Oldster Learning From Experiences Learning Process Writers On Writing Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Quotes Writing Tips

Often as writers, we are surprised by what we learn about ourselves. It runs counter to what we’ve thought about who we are. But it is closer to the truth.

~ Rob Bignell

Rob Bignell Journal Writing Journaling Journals Journals Diaries Writers On Writing Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

Through the act of writing, a writer learns more about himself than he could ever imagine.

~ Rob Bignell

Rob Bignell Writers Block Writers Inspiration Writers On Writing Writers Quotes Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Inspiration

It's good to write badly. Things can only get better.

~ Alan Dapre

Alan Dapre Author Quotes Drafting Humour Writers On Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

I admire the person who can write it right off. Mencken once said that a person who thinks clearly can write well. But I don't think clearly--too many thoughts bump into one another. Trains of thought run on a track of the Central Nervous System--the New York Central Nervous System, to make it worse.

~ James Thurber

James Thurber Humor Writers On Writing Writing Craft

Lie naked on the table, and let them cut. Criticism is surgery, and humility is the anesthetic that allows you to tolerate it. In the end, the process will make you a stronger, more flexible, and truly creative writer. It will replace attitude with genuine confidence, and empty arrogance with artistry.

~ Molly Cochran

Molly Cochran Criticism Revision Writers On Writing Writing Craft

You don’t create a diamond by rubbing it with fluffy bunny slippers. You need to apply pressure and heat. There are enough air-headed cheerleaders out there. We need more drill sergeants.

~ Julie Ann Dawson

Julie Ann Dawson Criticism Writer Feedback Writing Craft

You can’t just come out and say what you have to say. That’s what people do on airplanes, when a man plops down next to you in the aisle seat of your flight to New York, spills peanuts all over the place (back when the cheapskate airlines at least gave you peanuts), and tells you about what his boss did to him the day before. You know how your eyes glaze over when you hear a story like that? That’s because of the way he’s telling his story. You need a good way to tell your story.

~ Adair Lara

Adair Lara Memoirs Writing Advice Writing Craft

On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

~ Penelope Fitzgerald

Penelope Fitzgerald Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Humor

Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay

~ Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Quotes

Don’t expect the puppets of your mind to become the people of your story. If they are not realities in your own mind, there is no mysterious alchemy in ink and paper that will turn wooden figures into flesh and blood.

~ Leslie Gordon Barnard

Leslie Gordon Barnard Writing Advice Writing Craft

A clever trick does not a concept make.

~ Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks Concept Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

I think if a writer is being honest they’d admit to a file full of a dozen or more stories that are all started to varying degrees. They’re like the kid who wants to be a firefighter and a police officer and an astronaut.

~ Dan Alatorre

Dan Alatorre Writing Advice Writing Advice Process Writing Craft

In the book (Savvy Stories) you see some very real, very personal moments. The first week of Savvy’s life was the longest week of ours. We spent five days in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) worrying that our newborn daughter might die. It was touch and go for a while, and it was extremely difficult to write about. Chapter two gets a lot of people crying. But because we put that honesty out there, readers said “Okay, I can trust this guy.” Then they were better able to laugh with us, too.

~ Dan Alatorre

Dan Alatorre Writing Advice Writing Craft

You are an author! You will be a published author. Take pride in that, and present only your best work. Then, continue to improve, so your best gets even better.

~ Courage Knight

Courage Knight Editing Grammar Punctuation Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

Tighten your prose so the story flows.

~ Anna Dobritt

Anna Dobritt Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Tips

You can swap the message around, and whatever the particular norm is, or whatever the particular message is, when you put your pet-peeve message before story, odds are you are going to bore the shit out of your reader.

~ Larry Correia

Larry Correia Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Philosophy Writing Tips

Aspiring authors, get this through your head. Cover art serves one purpose, and one purpose only, to get potential customers interested long enough to pick up the book to read the back cover blurb. In the internet age that means the thumb nail image needs to be interesting enough to click on. That’s what covers are for.

~ Larry Correia

Larry Correia Book Cover Book Cover Quotes Book Covers Writing Advice Writing Craft

...and above all, you should not think of writing as a way of earning your living. If you do, your work will smell of your poverty. It will be colored by your weakness and be as thin as your hunger. There are other trades which you can take up: make boots, not books.

~ Marquis De Sade

Marquis De Sade Writing Advice Writing Craft

Writing is easy. Writing well is hard work.

~ Amy Joy

Amy Joy Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Process Writing Advice

If the passage absolutely demands cursing, be moderate. A little of it goes a long way. I've seen beginning writers pepper curse words through sentence after sentence.'If you don't -blanking- get your -blanking-blank-blank- in to this house this -blanking- minute, I'm going to -blank- your -blank- and nail it to the -blanking- door.'Two things happen when I read this junk: I get bored and I get angry. I didn't pick up your book to read garbage. If this is as clever as you can be, I don't want to read your prose. In life if you met someone who spoke like this, you'd want to flee. Then why put this stuff on the page?As near as I can determine, this abomination occurs because a writer is corrupted by the awful -blanking- dialog that movies inflict on us these days. It's also a sign of insecurity. The writer wonders if the dialog is strong enough and decides a lot of -blanking-blank- will do the trick.Someone might object that this kind of dialog is realistic in certain situations--intense scenes involving policemen or soldiers for example. I can only reply that in my research I spend considerable time with policemen and soldiers. Few of them curse any more than a normal person would. This garbage isn't realistic. It merely draws attention to itself and holds back the story. Use it sparingly.

~ David Morrell

David Morrell Profanity Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft

According to Wallace, the expectation that art amuses is a 'poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with,' since it places all of the power with the audience, sometimes breeding resentment on the part of the author. 'I can see it in myself and in other young writers,' he told McCaffery: 'this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.' Wallace expressed his 'hostility' by writing unwieldy sentences, refusing to fulfill readers' expectations, and 'bludgeoning the reader with data'--all strategies he used to wrestle back some of the power held by modern audiences.

~ Dorothy M. Kennedy

Dorothy M. Kennedy David Foster Wallace Dfw Writing Advice Writing Craft

You gotta dig through the shit to get to the gold.

~ Diego Ramos

Diego Ramos Writing Advice Writing Craft

The solution to entrapment in the narcissistic hothouse of self is to not relinquish autobiographical writing, but to expand the self by bringing one's curiosity to interface with more and more history and the present world.

~ Phillip Lopate

Phillip Lopate Wisdom Writing Advice Writing Craft

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

~ Danielle Ackley-Mcphail

Danielle Ackley-Mcphail Writing Advice Writing Craft

Let us not neglect the forbidden. Let us not sophisticate ourselves out of the cheap thrill and chill of it: the story told for perversity's sake, and all the better for that; the image created because an artist gets tired of reasons sometimes, and wants to dredge up some picture he's been haunted by, and parade it like a new tattoo. I go with it, readily.

~ Clive Barker

Clive Barker Perversity Writing Advice Writing Craft

Good writing just isn't that common.

~ Eric Flint

Eric Flint Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft
Load More classy quote icon