The only thing you really need to be a writer is time. Regular, consistent time, quality time when you're not tired. I write on the bus to and from work, that's my time, 1 or 2 hours every single day. Make the time, keep at it, and you'll be a real writer before you know it.

~ Jonathan Maas

Jonathan Maas Inspirational Parenthood Time Management Writers On Writing Writing Writing Process

The challenge of the writer is to transform—artistically and imaginatively—a unique personal experience into a universal, meaningful story.

~ Hillel F. Damron

Hillel F. Damron Writing Writing Process

There's nothing more intoxicating than creating something from nothing. Creating something from yourself. Professor Piper

~ Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell Cath Professor Piper Rainbow Rowell Writers Life Writers World Writing Writing Process

A day of bad writing is always better than a day of no writing.

~ Don Roff

Don Roff Bad Writing Day Finish The Race Inspiration No Writing Writing Writing Process Writing Tip

The writer’s life requires courage, patience, empathy, openness. It requires the ability to be alone with oneself. Gentle with oneself. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks.

~ Dani Shapiro

Dani Shapiro Inspirational Writing Writing Process

Writing takes a pen, a sheet of paper and, to start with, just the shadow of an idea.

~ Françoise Sagan

Françoise Sagan Writing Writing Process

Having read several prize-winning novels, Fancy was confident that she now knew the recipe: 1. Write a simple narrative. 2. Make a long list. 3. Scatter the contents of your list throughout your narrative.

~ Jaclyn Moriarty

Jaclyn Moriarty Writing Writing Process

When writers stop believing in their own stories, readers tend to sense it.

~ Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder Writing Writing Process

These scenes, by the way, are not altogether a literary device - a means of summing up and making a knot of innumerable little threads. Innumerable threads were there; still, if I stopped to disentangle, I could collect a number. But whatever the reason may be, I find that scene making is my natural way of marking the past.

~ Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf Writing Writing Process

I've discovered that sometimes writing badly can eventually lead to something better. Not writing at all leads to nothing.

~ Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen Writing Writing Process

I usually get the title for a book first, and I type it up immediately. I sit there and look at it and admire it, and I think to myself, I just need four thousand sentences to go with this and I'l have a book. It is such a pleasurable moment that I type many more title pages than I could ever use.

~ Betsy Byars

Betsy Byars Inspiration Title Page Writing Writing Process

Never try to keep it professional, keep it smutty, write with bodily fluids on sandpaper, and damn the men with clipboards in white suits, the literary bean-counters, the prose police.

~ Peter Selgin

Peter Selgin Writers On Writing Writing Writing Advice Writing Books Writing Process Writing Style

Writing had never become routine for him, but remained a constant surprise. He was always surprised at how much fun it was, once it all got moving. And never failed to be surprised at how bloody hard it was. It was like having an intense, frustrating love affair with a capricious, gorgeous, and often mean-spirited woman.He loved every moment of it.

~ Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts Writing Writing Process

Writing is like bungee jumping for the soul...you take a deep breath, plunge into the abyss and hope the rope tethering you to the real world doesn't snap.

~ Judy Croome

Judy Croome Writing Writing Process

On some days, writing is wonderful. On the days when it is wonderful, it feels like you are the God of a universe that the rest of the world is not yet privy to. And then on some days, it is not wonderful; those days when nothing is coming and the cursor seems to be openly mocking you, blinking out ‘YOU SUCK AT WRITING AND YOU’RE UGLY AS BALLS’ in Morse code.

~ Leigh Whannell

Leigh Whannell Humor Writing Writing Process

People who want to write books do so because they feel it to be the easiest thing they can do. They can read and write, they can afford any of the instruments of book writing such as pens, paper, computers, tape recorders, and generally by the time they have reached this decision, they have had a simple education.

~ Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark Writing Writing Advice Writing Books 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

It's basically an act of faith, hoping that a small idea will unspool into a bigger whole. Sometimes, in fact often, it doesn't and it just runs out of steam. The hope for me is that it will snowball. the best way to put it is that I have no particular method or technique per se, other than this: I plan nothing, I outline nothing, I start with an idea or an image or a line of dialogue and see where it leads me. Because I never know what the next page will contain, let alone the end of the book, I am perpetually surprised by the course that my characters take. The writing process is as full of surprises and twists for me as the reading experience is for my readers. I love the spontaneity of writing this way, the possibilities left open, the feeling that I am not constrained or committed to any given path. Every day, I am surprised by something. It may not be the most efficient way of writing, but it has served me well thus far.

~ Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini Writing Writing Advice Writing Process

And yet, for a writer of fiction, part of the heart remains that of a stranger, for what we are trying to do is to understand those others who are our fictional characters, somehow to gain entrance to their minds and feelings, to respect them for themselves as human individuals, and to portray them as truly as we can. The whole process of fiction is a mysterious one, and a writer, however experienced, remains in some ways a perpetual amateur, or perhaps a perpetual traveller, an explorer of those inner territories, those strange lands of the heart and spirit.

~ Margaret Laurence

Margaret Laurence Writing Writing Process

When you are writing, you must treat it as the most important thing in the world, even when you know it is not. This helps you take the job seriously and do your best on everything you write.

~ John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck Writing Writing Process

Writing is like painting a painting. Layer over layer over layer.

~ Kevin James Breaux

Kevin James Breaux Work Writing Writing Process

Never stop writing. Whether you’re writing a novel, screen play or just keeping a journal, it’s integral that you make writing a daily process. The proof of the commitment to your craft is just how much time you spend doing it, whether it’s for business or pleasure. Integrate your craft into your every day life, and you’ll be as good as gold.

~ Leigh Hershkovich

Leigh Hershkovich Success Writing 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

Inspiration do not come and cannot be found, it has to exist - somewhere, somehow. Do believe that what you are doing is the most important thing in this world, and do believe that your words can be magical. Because I know they can be and I know they are. If you feel that you are lost in your own mind, don’t think, just write. Sometimes we have to erase our thoughts and memories to gain enough strength to be able to write down our inner thoughts. If you don’t know what it is, if you think it’s ridiculous or silly, you’re definitely on the right way. Sometimes you will hate your words and sometimes you will love them. This is the fun part of greatness in which the other part definitely will be your devil. Remember; with greatness comes obstacles.

~ Liv-Christine Hoem

Liv-Christine Hoem Inspiration Writing Writing Process

Do not worry about what words to use. Worry about why this story needs to be told and the rest will take care of itself.

~ Moira Katson

Moira Katson Writing Writing Process

Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write

~ Dani Shapiro

Dani Shapiro Writing Writing Process

The setting sun threatened to consume me—it could have, you know. It would have been a beautiful death with an honorable eulogy: slain by a magnificent slice of piercing orange energy. I simply turned and walked away; I would live another day.

~ Chila Woychik

Chila Woychik Death By Sun Nature On Being A Rat Rural Living Sun Writing Writing Process

The novella will be called, I think, “The Messiah of Stockholm.” It takes place in Stockholm. I’d better say no more, or the Muse will wipe it out.

~ Cynthia Ozick

Cynthia Ozick Creativity Paris Review Writing Writing Process

PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNOW OF SYLVIA PLATHConventions bleed my soulsqueeze me oldwear me grey like a headstone in transit.It’s tradition and form—fear of the unknown—driving me deadin tight spaces darkly.I cry aloudbut who can hearwhen I stand alonein the middle of an art show….

~ Chila Woychik

Chila Woychik On Being A Rat Poetry Rats Sylvia Plath Writing Writing Process

I don’t need to write. Madness or suicide are other options, though not nearly as compelling. But I want to create; I hope to create worlds in my own image, admittedly a self-centered plan. I want others to understand me better, pay more attention to me, like or love me for who I am. Maybe that’s it. Or maybe I should simply learn to say, “Let’s have lunch.

~ Chila Woychik

Chila Woychik On Being A Rat Writing Writing Process

This isn’t a religious book though I mention God, not a medical advisory though I speak of pain. It’s a circus, a mortuary, a grade school, a limousine ride. Will it be worth the paper it’s printed on or the screen you hold in your hand? I just hope you remember it next week.

~ Chila Woychik

Chila Woychik Writing Writing Process

In this book, much is metaphorical, not as it seems. It’s written for writing’s sake, as if I were to say, “Let me tell you I’m dying.” Well of course I am. So are you.

~ Chila Woychik

Chila Woychik Metaphors Writing Writing Process

A shrink and a patient switching places. Who is REALLY the boss?

~ Mary Papas

Mary Papas Flash Fiction Short Stories Writing Writing Process

The gotta, as in: “I think I’ll stay up another fifteen-twenty minutes, honey, I gotta see how this chapter comes out.” Even though the guy who says it spent the day at work thinking about getting laid and knows the odds are good his wife is going to be asleep when he finally gets up to the bedroom. The gotta, as in: “I know I should be starting supper now — he’ll be mad if it’s TV dinners again — but I gotta see how this ends.” I gotta know will she live. I gotta know will he catch the shitheel who killed his father. I gotta know if she finds out her best friend’s screwing her husband. The gotta. Nasty as a hand-job in a sleazy bar, fine as a fuck from the world’s most talented call-girl. Oh boy it was bad and oh boy it was good and oh boy in the end it didn’t matter how rude it was or how crude it was because in the end it was just like the Jacksons said on that record — don’t stop til you get enough.

~ Stephen King

Stephen King Inspiration Writing 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

Start with a word. A word leads to a sentence, which leads to a paragraph, which leads to a chapter, which leads to a manuscript, which leads to a book..... just start with a word!

~ Mark Pettinger

Mark Pettinger Writing 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

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note.

~ Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert Authors Creative Process Writing Writing Process

No matter how much enthusiasm and effort you put into writing, if you totally lack literary talent you can forget about being a novelist.

~ Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami Novelist Writing Writing Process

The trouble is, writing the damn thing is like unscrewing your skull and pouring the contents of your brain into an empty tank. The tank has a shape, more or less - has more or less defined edges, a bottom and sides. But what it mostly has is volume: a hungry space I've somehow got to fill.

~ Mike Carey

Mike Carey Writing Writing Process
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