After last week’s post, I decided to stop angsting about not writing and to just go with the flow. To be honest, I struggle to think clearly knowing there’s still so much stuff that’s waiting to be sorted and put in the proper places.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash — Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

But I don't want to neglect my blog. So, in a bid to get my brain closer to ‘writing’ mode, I dug out some quotes… about writing. And how true the first one is, by our good friend, ‘anonymous’.

‘Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet’ ~ Anonymous

‘Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write’ ~ William Cobbett

‘Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere’ ~ Anne Lamott

‘A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult that it is for other people’ ~ Thomas Mann

‘If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it’ ~ Elmore Leonard

‘Prowling about the rooms, sitting down, getting up, stirring the fire, looking out the window, teasing my hair, sitting down to write, writing nothing, writing something and tearing it up…” ~ Charles Dickens

‘It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all’ ~ Will Shetterly

‘Novels begin not on the page, but in meditation and daydreaming – in thinking, not writing’ ~ Joyce Carol Oates

‘Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand’ ~ George Orwell

This last one is my absolute favourite…

‘Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brows and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to’ ~ Alan Watts

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash — Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Weekly Writing - Quotes on Writing