Writing Quotes

Write Your Way Through Difficult Times

August 31, 2015 by Noemi 2 Comments

Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn’t it such a relief to have somebody say that? – Kurt Vonnegut

It is a bummer to be a human being, and it is such a relief to have someone say that. Life has its awesome moments, but being human (as compared to other species) has a lot of disadvantages, not the least of which is having the capacity to think and feel intensely – sometimes with reason and emotion clashing with each other like two gladiators fighting for their lives in the pit.

Everyone has his own coping mechanism, but I think that in this matter, we writers have one thing we can always fall back on: writing! [Read more…]

The Best E.L. Doctorow Quotes

July 22, 2015 by Noemi Leave a Comment

Today, we learned of the passing of renowned author E.L. Doctorow. According to his son, the cause of his death was complications due to lung cancer.

The author is probably known best for Ragtime, which made it to the Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels of all time.

With his passing, we pay tribute to one of the most brilliant novelists of our time by learning from him. Of course, we can always put his books next on our reading lists, but for starters, here are some of the best E.L. Doctorow quotes that will make you think and inspire you as a writer.

Best E.L. Doctorow Quotes

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.
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.
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
A novelist is a person who lives in other people’s skins.
When I’m writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.
I began to ask two questions while I was reading a book that excited me: not only what was going to happen next, but how is this done? How is it that these words on the page make me feel the way I’m feeling? This is the line of inquiry that I think happens in a child’s mind, without him even knowing he has aspirations as a writer.
Happiness consists of living in the dailiness of life and not knowing how happy you are. True happiness comes of not knowing you’re happy.
I get intrigued by a first line and I write to find out why it means something to me. You make discoveries just the way the reader does, so you’re simultaneously the writer and the reader.
The important thing is not to be too comfortable when you’re writing. Noise in the street? That’s good. The computer goes down? That’s good. All these things are good. It has to be a little bit of a struggle.

Which of these quotes do you relate to the most? Which ones make you think about what you do?

You might also like: Writing Tools of Famous Authors

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15 Encouraging Writing Quotes for When You Feel Like a Failure

April 29, 2015 by Noemi 5 Comments

Last year, I wrote a piece about things that you can do when you feel like a failure. About a year later, I find it a slightly weird coincidence that I am writing something about the same topic.

I am not sure if it’s because my subconscious is telling me that I feel like a failure (because I honestly don’t), or if it really is just a coincidence.

In any case, we all need some encouragement from time to time. The reasons may vary. A client may be dissatisfied with your work. You may have the blues, resulting in low output. You may feel that your work isn’t good enough.

Whatever the reason may be, I hope these encouraging writing quotes will give you a morale boost.

1. If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write. – Somerset Maugham

2. It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. – Robert Benchley

3. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer. – Ray Bradbury

4. If you have other things in your life—family, friends, good productive day work—these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer. – David Brin

5. Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good. – William Faulkner

6. Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil—but there is no way around them. – Isaac Asimov

7. If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor. – Edgar Rice Burroughs

8. Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose…not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember. – Anne Sullivan Macy

9. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance. – Samuel Johnson

10. The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning. – Anne Tyler

11. Mistakes are the portals of discovery. ~ James Joyce

12. Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin,
but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. – Harper Lee

13. I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent re-writer. – James Michener

14. In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. – Leo Tolstoy

15. No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better. ― Erin Bow

Allow yourself to feel discouraged, but don’t dwell on it. Get up and do what you can do. Before you realize it, you’ll be back with a vengeance.

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10 Procrastination-Killing Quotes by Writers, for Writers

October 27, 2014 by FWJ 2 Comments

Editor’s note; This post was written by Jennifer Parris, career writer at FlexJobs, the award-winning site for telecommuting and flexible job listings. FlexJobs lists thousands of pre-screened, legitimate, and professional-level work-from-home jobs and other types of flexibility like part-time positions, freelancing, and flexible schedules. Jennifer provides career and job search advice through the FlexJobs Blog and social media. Learn more at www.FlexJobs.com.

You promised your editor that you would have your article in by the end of the week. But despite having a looming deadline, you’ve kept yourself busy clicking and commenting on your Facebook friends’ photos, playing with your pug, and visiting the fridge every half hour on the hour. In short, you’ve done everything except write.

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Procrastination hits even the best of writers. If you find yourself in a writing funk, get some inspiration from these 10 prolific writers, all of whom have battled—and won—the war against procrastination!

Procrastination Quotes by Writers

“You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.” –John Rogers
“I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen–whether I’m working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book–it’s usually because I’m trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place.” –Jeffery Deaver
“I think writer’s block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.” –Roy Blount, Jr.
“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” –Barbara Kingsolver
“It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.” –William Faulkner
“Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.” –John Steinbeck
“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very;’ otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” –C.S. Lewis
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” –Anne Lamott
“Don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” –Pearl S. Buck
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” –Ernest Hemingway

Sometimes it takes a little extra effort to put pen to paper. But as long as you try to minimize the distractions, the words will eventually flow, producing a great piece that you’ll be proud of.

14 Writing Quotes That Will Light a Fire Under Your Butt

May 21, 2014 by Noemi 2 Comments

Or keep you going when you’re just about ready to throw in the towel. In other words, I’m sharing 14 inspiring writing quotes that ought to help you if you’re lacking in the inspiration department. If you’re looking for specific ideas for blog posts, take a look at my post last week: 5 Blog Post Topics When Your Inspiration Well Runs Dry.

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So, hate them or not, quotes can help give you a boost, even though sometimes, it’s a temporary one. You know that we like sharing all sorts of quotes on Facebook and Twitter, so I thought I’d take a look at put together some of the most inspiring writing quotes I’ve encountered.

You may ask, why 14? I like the number, that’s all.

14 Inspiring writing quotes

“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
“If you can quit, then quit. If you can’t quit, you’re a writer.” ~R.A. Salvatore
“This is how you do it; you sit down at the keyboard and put one word after another until its done. It’s that easy and that hard.” ~Neil Gaiman
“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” ~Stephen King
“Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.” ~Cory Doctorow
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” ~Ernest Hemingway
“If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.” ~Somerset Maugham
“Start before you’re ready.” ~Steven Pressfield
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” ~Richard Bach
“Don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” ~Pearl S. Buck
“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” ~William Faulkner
“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” ~Edgar Rice Burroughs
“The secret of it all is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood of the moment–to put things down without deliberation–without worrying about their style–without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote–wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant, the very heartbeat of life is caught.” ~Walt Whitman
“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” ~Leo Tolstoy

I leave you with that last quote from Tolstoy, which may seem counterintuitive, but it does give you the license to take a step back and reflect for a while – but only for a while, after which you get right back to work. 😉

Funny Quotes for Writers

March 19, 2014 by Noemi 3 Comments

Sometimes, even though you plan out your day – or week – perfectly, things just don’t go the way they should. It’s darned Murphy’s Law at work, and you know that when Murphy visits, he doesn’t give a crap about what you think. During those times, you either fight your way through a crappy period, or you sit back, take a breath, and try to laugh things off.

If you’re going through a rough period, here are some funny quotes that writers can relate to. I do think that even if you’re having the time of your writing life at the moment, you’ll still find a chuckle or two to be a good thing.

Enjoy!

I write to escape … to escape poverty. – Unknown
Writing is a lonely job, unless you’re a drinker, in which case you always have a friend within reach. – Unknown
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. – Robert Benchley
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. – Douglas Adams
The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps. – Robert Benchley

For good measure, here are some more funny quotes for writers with some visual aids.

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Quotes can be tiresome, especially with everyone throwing them at you, left and right, these days, but you have to admit that sometimes, one good quote is all you need to turn things around.

What’s your favorite funny quote for writers?

Bonus: If what you need is a new writing gig, here are 11 Places to Find Freelance Writing Gigs.

What Are Your Essential Writing Gadgets?

October 29, 2013 by FWJ 1 Comment

When Hemingway said this, he probably had no idea just how the tools of the trade would change in the future. While many – if not most – of us would probably not hesitate to shell out some cash to own a vintage typewriter, the fact is that writers have more advanced tools at our disposal today. Of course, there are times when nothing beats good old pen and paper.

The other day, while working at a coffee shop, I couldn’t help but glance (okay, more than glance; maybe stare a little) at the people there. Many seemed to be online workers like me, and many had more than one device within arm’s reach at all times. This got me thinking about what the essential writing gadgets of writers today are.

Here’s my list. It is surprisingly short!

Laptop

I have several devices which I can use to browse the Internet and hammer out blog posts. With word processing software installed, those devices can also be used for writing longer pieces. Then there is the notepad, which I use to jot down whatever idea comes to me.

At the end of the day, though, the laptop is my go-to device. There is nothing like a huge (compared to a phone/tablet, 13 inches is huge) screen and a full-sized keyboard.

Smartphone

I included my smartphone not because of content creation but the other way around: consumption. Another writing quote that I like sharing is from Stephen King:

If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.

There have been many occasions when I find myself buried in work and not having time to enjoy my favorite pastime: reading. This quote always reminds me that it is essential to devour other people’s writing in order to be a good writer.

And that’s where my smartphone comes in. With unlimited data connection, I can check up on the news, read online articles, and read my ebooks wherever I may be. I may not actually use the phone to write, but it is an essential writing tool.

Portable music player

Here’s another gadget that is not directly related to my writing output but without which, I’d probably be in a totally different place. I rely heavily on music throughout the day, especially when I’m on the road. I also like working at different locations, which lends to creativity, but can also be prone to external noise. I don’t need to tell you how my portable music player helps me get (and stay) in the zone, do I?

Your turn: What are your essential writing gadgets?

Sara Wells is a tech writer and blogger. She writes on behalf of leading brands such as protectyourbubble.com cell phone insurance provider.