Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:
|
|
|
WritersNotes.Net: Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!
For the past few weeks, I've been battling a bad case of bronchitis, which is part of the reason I haven't updated lately. So, partly to remedy my recent lack of content and partly to indulge my own desire to blog again, I've decided to present a list of wonderful quotes on writing. The following 20 quotes should give you plenty to think about where your writing is concerned and will hopefully motivate, encourage, and inspire you to keep on keeping on!
The Quotes
"The chief glory of every people arises from its writers." ~Samuel Johnson~
"The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
"It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer." ~Gerald Brenan~
"The best antidote to writer's block is ... to write." ~Henriette Anne Klauser~
"One writes out of one thing only--one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from the experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give." ~James Baldwin~
“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” ~John Jakes~
“Writing eases my suffering ... writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.” ~Gao Xingjian~
"One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others' minds.” ~Alfred Kazin~
“I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh~
"A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness." ~Edith Wharton~
"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think." ~Edwin Schlossberg~
"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?" ~George Orwell~
"Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing." ~Heather Armstrong~
"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist." ~Isaac Asimov~
"The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them." ~Jeff Jarvis~
"The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything." ~John Irving~
"A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway." ~Junot Diaz~
"Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time ... The wait is simply too long." ~Leonard Bernstein~
"Learn as much by writing as by reading." ~Lord Acton~
"There's always something to write about. If there's not then you need to live life more aggressively." ~Min Kim~
So, get out and live--and then sit down and write!
To your success!
Jeanne
Sources:
Love Quotes and Quotations
ThinkExist.com
The Quotations Page
Do you enjoy reading quotes on writing? How do they help motivate and inspire you? Which of the above quotes are your favorites?
"Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives." (Viktor Frankl)
Some of the wisest observations about life have an uncanny way of applying not just to life in general but to specific, narrow segments of it. For example, if we substitute "writing" for "life" in the above quote, we'll see just how true this statement is.
Inspiration: Driven to Write
Many of us write because we feel driven to write, because writing is such an integral part of our intellectual makeup that we can hardly imagine not writing. In fact, putting pen to paper—or hands to keyboard—comes as naturally to us as breathing. And in one sense at least, for us writing is breathing, because when we write, we freely inhale the crisp, clear air of expansive thought before exhaling a stream of ideas, fully formed, to the world. That's why the highest form of this unbounded inflow of ideas is called Inspiration.
Planning and Goals: When Inspiration Tarries
Our inner drive to express ourselves through the written word does much to motivate us in our quest to have our ideas heard, to influence others, to make our mark on society, to earn recognition, and yes, even to change the world. Yet, the Inspiration that fuels that drive often eludes us—particularly in the early stages of the creative process. And this is where the pull of goals can spur us on, drawing us forward and giving us the impetus to begin writing and to stay with the task until Inspiration deigns to visit us.
Bridging the Gap Between Goals and Inspiration
This is such an important lesson for writers to learn. Though Inspiration is certainly the ideal for which we continually strive, it may sometimes be a luxury for which we simply cannot wait. When deadlines loom or personal projects seem stalled, we often must depend on the conscious goals we've previously set for our work to keep us on track and prevent us from giving up. Then, as we allow the magnetic attraction of our personal or professional plans to lure us forward, we so often find our project suddenly picking up speed—gaining forward thrust, if you will—as the subconscious motivator called Inspiration gradually kicks in and begins actively propelling us toward our deliberately orchestrated outcome.
Recognizing the Value of Planning
Our favorite writing times, of course, are those where Inspiration is our early visitor, coming upon us unannounced and uninvited—and particularly when this well-loved yet often fickle visitor's influence precedes, or even initiates, a project. Yet, it's wonderful to know that even when Inspiration tarries, we always have our old friend Planning to get us on our way!
While Inspiration may be our closest friend, let's not ignore our loyal sidekick Planning, who will always be there, standing quietly in the wings, patiently waiting to help us achieve our literary goals.
To goals and inspiration!
Jeanne
What have you discovered about goals and drives, planning and inspiration, as you've traveled your own writing path?
Quotations: A Writer's Best Friend
We writers just love a good quote -- whether we use it to enhance our own writing or simply read it for the sheer pleasure we experience as we drink in the inspiration ... or relish the wit ... or perhaps revel in the humor ... or marvel at the wisdom inherent in an insightful turn of phrase. In whatever way we may decide to use them, quotations can enrich our lives -- and our writing -- immensely.
That's why I'd like to share a website that offers a plethora of famous quotes, arranged by topic, type of author, specific author, favorite authors, and nationality, to make your search for the quotes that will pique your personal interest that much easier. The ability to browse by author's last name, along with the availability of a quick list of popular authors, adds to the convenience and applicability of the site to a variety of reader -- and writer -- needs. The site even offers quotes for the iPhone and features a Quote of the Moment (which changes every time you revisit or refresh the page), as well as over a hundred quotation trivia quizzes to help keep your mental agility in top form. The site is called BrainyQuote -- a deceptively simple yet highly appropriate title for such a rich repository of intellectual fare.
Quotations for Every Area of Interest and/or Occasion
The BrainyQuote website provides quotations on numerous topics, such as business, education, imagination, intelligence, success, and wisdom, to name but a few which might appeal to the writer's creative side. Some of the author types quoted in the type-of-author category are artist, author, journalist, musician, philosopher, and yes -- even writer. My only disappointment is that the site doesn't offer a collection of quotes on the topic of writing, rather than simply providing quotes that originated with writers -- since we all know there's a vast difference between the two.
How About a Regular (Daily) Dose of Brainy Quotes?
One added dimension of this site is that you may also pick up a string of code which allows you to display a Quote of the Day from one of several selected types of daily quote generators on your own website or blog. This is a great way to share the wit and wisdom of some of the better-known -- and some of the not-so-well-recognized -- personages of our times. Displaying a quote a day gives readers more time to ponder each quotation more fully, gaining maximum value from its insights, rather than overwhelming our visitors with too many intellectual gems to assimilate at a single sitting.
The Quote of the Day Widget Here at Writer's Notes
You may have noticed the quotes currently displayed each day in my left sidebar. (If you haven't, why not take a look.) The quotes displayed here come from the general Quote of the Day category of the BrainyQuote website (though at some point, I may decide to try a different daily quote type). Other Quote of the Day types include Art Quotes, Funny Quotes, Love Quotes, and Nature Quotes.
BrainyQuote: A Fount of Wisdom to Visit or Take "Home"
The fact that the site doesn't offer quotes about writing is really a rather minor imperfection. Aside from that, it has a great deal to offer -- both to those who simply want to visit and peruse (and definitely bookmark) the site and those who prefer to give their blog's or website's readers a daily dose of verbal wisdom by posting the automated Quote-of-the-Day widget in their sidebars.
So, why not visit the BrainyQuote site and get your daily dose of wisdom and inspiration? You might even decide to bring some brainy quotes back to your own home page and give your readers some daily food for thought -- aside from the tempting intellectual fare you already provide, that is.
Happy quoting!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? What are your personal thoughts on quotations? How do you prefer to have your quotations served up: all at once, one at a time, in limited groups of related remarks, more than one of the above, or ? What do you think of today's Quote of the Day? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Please note: If the StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking buttons aren't visible, please click the "Add Comments" link beneath this post. Thanks!
Still 10 More Quotes to Round Out the Series
Since we're exploring inspiration this month at Writer's Notes, I though this the perfect time for the third and final installment of my "10 Quotes on Writing" series. Some of the following quotes reveal the ironies of the writing life, some explore its subtleties, and some shout its realities. A few evoke a chuckle, while others make us ponder the mysteries of the writer's creativity.
Whatever responses they may elicit from you, may these quotes from those who've shared your passion for the written word provide the inspiration you need to take your innate talent, hone it to razor sharpness, and use it to cut to the heart of your topic, creating a piece of writing that's not just uniquely you, but also uniquely true. Enjoy!
The Quotes
1. The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt. ~ John Mortimer ~
2. Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. ~ Flannery O'Connor ~
3. Really, in the end, the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately--many people will help you unintentionally. ~ Santha Rama Rau ~
4. A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others. ~ Leo Rosten ~
5. What I like in a good author isn't what he says, but what he whispers. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith ~
6. Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. ~ Socrates ~
7. A writer is dear and necessary for us only in the measure of which he reveals to us the inner workings of his very soul. ~ Count Leo Tolstoy ~
8. I love being a writer, what I can't stand is the paperwork. ~ Peter De Vries ~
9. Good writing is clear thinking made visible. ~ Bill Wheeler ~
10. Writing is thinking on paper. ~ William Zinsser ~
May these words of "writerly" wit and wisdom light the spark of creativity in you!
Literarily yours,
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Were there any quotes you especially liked? Any you disagreed with? Please feel free to share your thoughts! I'd love to hear from you!
Please note: If the StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking buttons aren't visible, please click the "Add Comments" link beneath this post. Thanks!
Words of Wit and Wisdom from Literary Minds
The following is another collection of writing quotes for us writers to enjoy. They come straight from the minds of a few of the well-known writers who have gone before. Without a doubt, these literary personalities have a great deal of collective knowledge and experience to share with us. So, fellow writers, sit back, read, learn, and enjoy--and perhaps you'll receive a spark of inspiration from their words, as well.
The Quotes
1. A writer and nothing else; a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right. ~ John K. Hutchens ~
2. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. ~ Samuel Johnson ~
3. Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader. ~ Joseph Joubert ~
4. Writing is the incurable itch that possesses many. ~ (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) Juvenal ~
5. The cure for writers cramp is writer's block. ~ Inigo de Leon ~
6. As I take up my pen I feel myself so full, so equal to my subject, and see my book so clearly before me in embryo, I would almost like to try to say it all in a single word. ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg ~
7. Writing crystallizes thought and thought produces action. ~ Paul J. Meyer ~
8. I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing little; they want to have been writers, garnering the rewards of having completed a best-seller. They aspire to the rewards of writing but not to the travail. ~ James A. Michener ~
9. Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators. ~ Olin Miller ~
10. Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill. ~ Edmund Morrison ~
The Effect of these Quotes on the Writer
Hope these quotes have spoken to you in one way or another. Perhaps they've struck a chord that brought a truth home to you in an especially poignant way. Perhaps you were able to relate a quoted thought to your own experience. Or possibly one of these sayings taught you a truth you never understood before. Even if your only reaction to reading them was a smile, a nod, or a few moments of entertainment, they will have served their purpose.
Yet, the best result that could come from these sayings would be that they send you to your keyboard with a renewed desire...to write!
Happy writing!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Have any favorite quotes about writing that you'd like to add? We'd love to hear them--as well as your thoughts about these!
Please note: If the StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking buttons aren't visible, please click the "Add Comments" link beneath this post. Thanks!
Some Thoughts by Writers on Writing
Perhaps some of these quotes will inspire you. Some may cause you to shake your head. Maybe others will bring a smile to your lips. Some might even make you want to prove the writer wrong. But, whatever else they do, I hope these quotes will get you thinking about the wonderful vocation--or avocation, as the case may be for you--of writing. Hopefully they will plant some ideas that will spring up and bear fruit in your own writing in one way or another.
The Quotes
1. The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps. ~ Robert Benchley ~
2. To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author. ~ Charles Caleb Colton ~
3. Writing isn't hard. It isn't any harder than ditch-digging.
~ Patrick Dennis ~
4. The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century. ~ E. L. Doctorow ~
5. I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it. ~ William Faulkner ~
6. He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ~
7. The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it. ~ William Golding ~
8. A writer should be a joyous optimist. Anything that implies rejection of life is wrong for a writer. ~ George Gribbon ~
9. The characteristic of Chaucer is intensity: of Spencer, remoteness: of Milton elevation and of Shakespeare everything.
~ William Hazlitt ~
10. You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don't labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers. ~ Horace ~
Happy contemplating!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Which of these quotes made you think? Which did you agree with, and which did you disagree with? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Please note: If the StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking buttons aren't visible, please click the "Add Comments" link beneath this post. Thanks!
My Inspiration for this Post
While checking the current value of my blog over at Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog (the results of which I'll report in another post), I came across Dane's latest blog entry, posted earlier, which I found highly appropriate for writers/bloggers as we head into a new year. In his post, Dane shares 10 Golden Lessons from Albert Einstein. Check out the words of wisdom that Dane has chosen to share from the great store of sayings which originated in the mind of this great scientist and creative thinker.
Additional Gems of Einsteinian Wisdom
After reading Dane's post, I became inspired to search for additional Einstein quotes and was by no means disappointed. The following are some of the incredible words spoken by a man of great intelligence, a dedicated scientist and thinker, prolific in articulating his insights about life.
Albert's Advice for Writers to Take to Heart
The first group of five Einstein quotes offers excellent advice which, though not directed specifically at writers, is nonetheless applicable to our creative literary pursuits and every bit as much to our attempts to achieve success in our chosen discipline. Read and reap the benefits of some of the potent life lessons learned by Einstein during his many years of intellectual inquiry:
1. "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
2. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
3. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
4. “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”
5. “Never regard your study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.”
More Einsteinian Truths to Inspire Us
The additional 21 Einsteinian gems of wisdom which follow can further inspire us to reach the heights of our own personal creativity, imagination, idealism, and intellect. No doubt certain of these sayings will resonate with each of us more than others will; but all seem to me to have great significance for those of us who seek to express ourselves through our literary endeavors. Which of them have special meaning for you?
1. “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
2. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
3. “Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.”
4. “Information is not knowledge.”
5. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
6. “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
7. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.”
8. “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
9. “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
10. “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
11. “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”
12. “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
13. “There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”
14. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
15. “True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.”
16. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
17. "It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure."
18. “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
19. “Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”
20. “People do not grow old no matter how long we live. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we were born.”
21. “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
Not All, But Enough for Now
The above are by no means all the Einstein quotes I've collected during my fascinating foray into the mind of this intellectual giant; yet, they are enough, I think, to stimulate our minds, hearts, and imaginations for the moment. Even these are quite a lot to absorb at one sitting and will likely require rereading a time or two for lasting impact; so I'll stop here to allow them sufficient time to sink in and save the rest for a later post.
Hopefully, these quotes have been a source of inspiration to you and will continue to resonate with you as you look forward to another year of reading, thinking, learning, feeling, and sharing with your readers all that you discover and absorb in the year ahead.
Happy learning--and writing!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Have anything to share about the above quotes or the creative process or any additional words of wisdom you've come across in your own intellectual travels? We'd love to hear from you!
Here they are--just in time for Mother's Day! Some more-or-less contemporary quotes about that great vocation (not to be confused with great vacation!): Motherhood!
Motherhood in all its guises and permutations is more art than science. ~Melinda M. Marshall~
Motherhood is the second oldest profession in the world. ~Erma Bombeck~
We honor motherhood with glowing sentimentality, but we don't rate it high on the scale of creative occupations. ~Leontine Young~
The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute. ~Honore De Balzac~
The central paradox of motherhood is that while our children become the absolute center of our lives, they must also push us back out in the world.... But motherhood that can narrow our lives can also broaden them. It can make us focus intensely on the moment and invest heavily in the future. ~Ellen Goodman~
Combining paid employment with marriage and motherhood creates safeguards for emotional well-being. Nothing is certain in life, but generally the chances of happiness are greater if one has multiple areas of interest and involvement. To juggle is to diminish the risk of depression, anxiety, and unhappiness. ~Faye J. Crosby~
Of all the haunting moments of motherhood, few rank with hearing your own words come out of your daughter’s mouth. ~Victoria Secunda~
The most consistent gift and burden of motherhood is advice. ~Susan Chira~
The passion of love is essentially selfish, while motherhood widens the circle of our feelings. ~Honore De Balzac~
The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous, involving and utterly tedious, all at the same time. The world is full of women made to feel strange because what everyone assumes comes naturally is so difficult to do—never mind to do well. ~Anna Quindlen~
The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities. ~Jessie Bernard~
When you reach the end of your rope, don't add guilt to your frustration. No one said motherhood was going to be easy. ~Heather King~
Happy Mother's Day to Mothers Everywhere!
Your Creative Cohort,
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
Here are a few more quotes by writers on writing. Some are thought-provoking, some brutally honest, some inspiring, and some simply clever--but whatever your thinking about the art or the craft, you should find something here that will catch your fancy!
Here goes:
There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It's a kind of trick of mind and he is born with it. ~Morley Callaghan~
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book. ~Mickey Spillane~
Autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing. ~Quentin Crisp~
A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else can only be a footnote. ~Yevgeny Yevtushenko~
Books are...funny little portable pieces of thought. ~Susan Sontag~
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more books than he has read. ~Samuel Johnson~
Journalism is literature in a hurry. ~Matthew Arnold~
Literature is the question minus the answer. ~Roland Barthes~
Literature is recognizable through its capacity to evoke more than it says. ~Anthony Burgess~
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. ~G.K. Chesterton~
To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession. ~Robert Graves~
The poet marries the language, and out of this marriage the poem is born. ~W.H. Auden~
A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. ~Robert Frost~
It's easier to write a mediocre poem than to understand a good one. ~Montaigne~
In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind. ~Marianne Moore~
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings...in a man who has thought long and deeply. ~William Wordsworth~
You write by sitting down and writing. There's no particular time or place--you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he's disciplined, doesn't matter. ~Bernard Malamud~
I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark. ~Henry David Thoreau~
When I stop (working), the rest of the day is posthumous. I'm only really alive when I'm working. ~Tennessee Williams~
Words are loaded pistols. ~Jean-Paul Sartre~
Words are like leaves, and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found. ~Alexander Pope~
All the fun's in how you say a thing. ~Robert Frost~
The greatest possible mint of style is to make the words absolutely disappear into the thought. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne~
I do not understand this chronic illness. I wish I had gone to law school. ~Darryl Pinckney~
The best time for planning a book is when you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie~
I talk out the lines as I write. ~Tennessee Williams~
If I could, I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results. ~Emily Bronte~
If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers. ~Irvin S. Cobb~
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. ~E. L. Doctorow~
Hope a few of these provocative thoughts have set your own creative juices flowing!
Happy writing!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
Writers, as a rule, tend to have a great deal to say about many subjects--and writing is no exception. Here are a few pearls of wisdom on the writing craft from some of history's most prolific authors:
There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Red Smith~
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. ~Samuel Johnson~
A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. That is too much of a temptation to the editor. ~Ring Lardner~
Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it. ~W. Somerset Maugham~
The secret of popular writing is never to put more on a given page than the common reader can lap off it with no strain WHATSOEVER on his habitually slack attention. ~Ezra Pound~
Better to write for yourself and have no public than write for the public and have no self. ~Cyril Connolly~
If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that's read by people who move their lips when they're reading to themselves. ~Don Marquis~
In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give to your style. ~Sydney Smith~
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. ~Henry David Thoreau~
There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers. ~H.L. Mencken~
You can write about anything, and if you write well enough, even the reader with no intrinsic interest in the subject will become involved. ~Tracy Kidder~
The wastepaper basket is the writer's best friend. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer~
When I sit at my table to write, I never know what it's going to be till I'm under way. I trust inspiration, which sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't. But I don't sit back waiting for it. I work every day. ~Alberto Moravia~
It's not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them. ~T. S. Eliot~
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. ~Mark Twain~
The secret of good writing is to say an old thing a new way or to say a new thing an old way. ~Richard Harding Davis~
Well, dear Aspiring Writer, now that you've read all this practical advice, all these clever witticisms, and all these words of inspiration penned by wordsmiths who have actually accomplished what you may only dream of, there's only one thing left for you to do if you'd like to join their ranks: WRITE!
Literarily Yours,
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Don't leave me lonely--Please comment!
|
|
|
Comments (8)
Add Comments