writing

‘Writing a novel is a terrible experience during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I’m always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system.’ Flannery O’Connor

For me, writing is exploration; and most of the time, I’m surprised where the journey takes me. Jack Dann

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he...

Let loose and let rip. Writing is one thing. Publishing another. Performance anxiety is putting the cart before the horse.

'Writing is a kind of revenge against circumstance too: bad luck, loss, pain. If you make something out of it, then you've no longer been bested by these events.' Louise Glück

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath, hoping what you're doing might end up everything you're hoping it to be once you reach the surface. Writing a short story, or a novel even, is basically like diving deep into the ocean and not coming up for air until you reach...

“When I'm writing, I make words my b*tch. But when I'm editing, the words make me their b*tch. It all equals out in the end.” Richard B. Knight

“All good writing leaves something unexpressed.” Christian Nestell Bove

“All writing is a message in a bottle, cast into the sea in the forlorn hope of recognition and acceptance.” Stewart Stafford

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done." Steven Wright .

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” E. L. Doctorow

Writing requires patience, passion, and perseverance. Without the 3Ps you will never finish a manuscript or get it published. Sue Nyathi

'Writing is a necessary joy. It's the only way to understand other people, their stories and hopes, their articulated or mute selves. The job of the writer is to put that into words which, afterwards, will seem inevitable.' Philip Hensher

'Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.' — Don Marquis

'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

'Writing is a strange synthesis between the two parts of your mind: the analytical side and the side that knows nothing at all, and you have to allow the dreaming side free rein.’ Rose Tremain

Writing a book takes me a long time. There are ALWAYS times when it feels too hard, too unimportant, too lonely. My process seems to be: take a few steps in the dark, fall, lie there, eventually get up, take a few more steps. Slowly, the landscape of the story becomes easier to see, almost...

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't matter. Edward Albee

“Any creative writing teacher worth their salt will tell you that a great story never starts at the beginning, it starts when something changes.” Juno Dawson