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Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant -you just don’t know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you’d mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place. Trust your demon.
~ Roger Zelazny
“I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.”
~ Edgar Rice Burroughs
Watch what happens today. If we get into a fish see exactly what it is that everyone does. If you get a kick out of it while he is jumping remember back until you see exactly what the action was that gave you the emotion. Whether it was the rising of the line from the water and the way it tightened like a fiddle string until drops started from it, or the way he smashed and threw water when he jumped. Remember what the noises were and what was said. Find what gave you the emotion; what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then write it down making it clear so the reader will see it too and have the same feeling that you had. That’s a five finger exercise.
~ Ernest Hemingway
“A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. . . . He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”
~ E. B. White
“The secret of becoming a writer is to write, write and keep on writing.”
~ Ken MacCloud
“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.”
~ Greg Bear
“You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money’s in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.”
~ Larry Niven
“Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone.”
~ Amy Tan
“The way you get better is putting words on the page and getting them behind you.”
~Ridley Pearson
Y’see, I get so bored so easily. I like to start with a clean slate each time. Sure, I’ll have characters drop in and out of books but the main cast of characters always changes. Maybe I’m wrong but I think if had the same joe detective guy or gal, I wouldn’t write them as well; I wouldn’t do as good a job. ~ Carl Hiaasen
