Quotes for Writers

(Journal writing - Image by Pexels - Pixabay)

As much as I’m enjoying crafting regularly, I do miss writing.

It bothers me so much, this not-writing lark, that I’ve decided the time has come to make a real effort to get back to it.

I’ve compiled a list of writing prompts in a notebook and…

Well, I just end up carting the notebook from one room to the next and then staring at it as if it’s some alien creature… poor thing.

(Typewriter - Image by Free-Photos - Pixabay)

So, in an attempt to locate my writerly mind, I shall share some quotes I collected many moons ago, starting with this one that made me laugh and cringe as it describes my current state:
“If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” ~ Dan Poynter.

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

“Anyone who says writing is easy isn’t doing it right.” ~ Amy Joy.

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” ~ Orson Scott Card.

(Fountain pen - image by Free-Photos - Pixabay)

It’s easy to forget that most, if not all writers, even well-known ones and those who dominate the bestseller lists, are plagued by self-doubt…
“I am profoundly uncertain about how to write. I know what I love or what I like because it’s a direct, passionate response. But when I write I’m very uncertain whether it’s good enough. That is, of course, the writer’s agony.” ~ Susan Sontag.

The thing I relate to in Judith Guest’s comment is what she says about writing the next novel:
“Years later I was still telling myself that I wasn’t really a writer, but a trickster – and a very lucky trickster at that. I had written a first novel and it had achieved phenomenal success. I had stumbled upon the secret path and uncovered the rules and had been rewarded with much praise. Unfortunately, all of this was proving to be very little use to me in the writing of the next novel. How could I have forgotten everything so quickly?” ~ Judith Guest, after the success of her runaway bestseller, ‘Ordinary People’.

(Manuscript - Image by nile - Pixabay)

I should print this out and put it on the wall as a daily reminder:
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ~ Louis L’Amour.

And here’s another good reminder:
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” ~ Jane Yolen.

This is a good reason to write and keep writing:
“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favour.” ~ Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I’ll end with Ursula K. Le Guin’s brilliant take on the age-old advice, ‘write what you know’:
“As for ‘Write what you know’, I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly could, so it’s my duty to testify about them.”

(Image by enriquelopezgarre - Pixabay)