writer’s block

“Writing can be a bit like unfolding something…Slowly, the writer reveals what’s happening. But that’s only half of what’s going on. Writers are very cunning people who are not only unfolding and revealing. Just like conjurors and magicians, they are hiding stuff too.” ~ Michael Rosen

Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning, that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.

~ Michael Morpurgo 

“The best tip for writing is just to write; to sit down and write, to begin doing it and not to be scared by the blank page.” David Almond

“Stories twist and turn and grow and meet and give birth to other stories. Here and there, one story touches another, and a familiar character, sometimes the hero, walks over the bridge from one story into another.” ~ Marcus Sedgwick

“Don’t be afraid of writing rubbish. It’s very easy to become hypnotized by an empty page or screen. It’s tempting to abandon a half-finished work because you can’t make it perfect. I hereby give you permission to write things that aren’t perfect, make mistakes, try things that don’t work, experiment with styles you’re not used to and generally throw words around. You’ll learn much faster that way.” ~ Frances Hardings

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character — the one whose view best brings the scene to life — I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight. ~ Elmore Leonard

I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy—for otherwise how can we manage to bear it? ~ Penelope Fitzgerald

“When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”

~ Mary Higgins Clark

You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed. ~ Anita Brookner

“If you don’t allow yourself the possibility of writing something very, very bad, it would be hard to write something very good.” ~ Steven Galloway