First get it written, then get it right. No idea who said it but they were spot on
I will finish this piece of shit if it kills me. Me, every single book.
I will finish this piece of shit if it kills me. Me, every single book.
Quotes You Believe In.
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"People just don't think of writing seriously. If I had been going off to teach all day, it would have been different. They wouldn't interrupt your work if you were employed at a grocery store. That's considered serious business. It's because you work at home. People think they can interrupt writing." -Jessamyn West
And, of course, my sig.
And, of course, my sig.
I don't have an inspirational quote that gets me going; I have an inspirational object. I keep a copy of Twilight on my desk to remind me that you don't have to be a good writer to be a successful writer.
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"...ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world [you] would most want to read... Next... sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself.”
--JD Salinger
--JD Salinger
As it pertains to characters (and to real life),
"Evil triumphs only when good men fail to act."
Edmund Burke
"Evil triumphs only when good men fail to act."
Edmund Burke
I think my second favorite is from someone who we all ought to know hereabouts,
"Write it, then submit it till Hell won't have it."
Uncle Jim
"Write it, then submit it till Hell won't have it."
Uncle Jim
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
― Madeleine L'Engle
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
― Ernest Hemingway
“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
― Maya Angelou
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
― Sylvia Plath
“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a tellar but for want of an understanding ear.”
― Stephen King, Different Seasons
“If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
“Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.”
― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.”
― Anaïs Nin
“No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.”
― Ishmael Reed, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down
“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
― Stephen King, On Writing
― Madeleine L'Engle
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
― Ernest Hemingway
“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
― Maya Angelou
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
― Sylvia Plath
“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a tellar but for want of an understanding ear.”
― Stephen King, Different Seasons
“If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
“Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.”
― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.”
― Anaïs Nin
“No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.”
― Ishmael Reed, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down
“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
― Stephen King, On Writing
My second favorite is paraphrased and with source unknown:
"Bad" is not the enemy of excellence*--the real enemy is "good enough."
*This only works if we acknowledge that "excellence" and "perfection" are two different things. The quest for perfection is a fool's errand while the quest for excellence rewards continual improvement, even if it is gradual.
"Bad" is not the enemy of excellence*--the real enemy is "good enough."
*This only works if we acknowledge that "excellence" and "perfection" are two different things. The quest for perfection is a fool's errand while the quest for excellence rewards continual improvement, even if it is gradual.
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1. I was insufferable long before that, or reading your
2. I wish I'd have read Pratchett's quote when I was thirteen. Would have saved me a lot of socks...
My favourite Woody Allen quote - "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen, I want to live on in my apartment."
I don't know about that. I've had the most intense physical experiences with beautiful women even though, each time, I was totally alone in the room.
Love it.
Weird, I always thought it was Hemingway.
So true. Good enough is lazy, in my world.
I believe Hemingway said "all you have to do is sit at a typewriter and bleed"
he was a cheery guy; would have probably loved to have a beer with him though. Till he kicked my ass.
he was a cheery guy; would have probably loved to have a beer with him though. Till he kicked my ass.
I'd love to too. I'm not sure which period of his life though. I think I'd like to sit down with him twice, once in his twenties and once much later.
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1. It ends the way it ends. What's yer point, punk?
I'm surrounded by pervs. Which makes Pratchett's quote that much sweeter.
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with her fondling a letter bomb, maybe? Plotting?
that would be an awesome idea of yours....
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What if she puts a bomb(e) in one of the tube socks in his special drawer, right, and then when he goes off to have the most fun he can have by himself...
oh wait I guess that's no good either.
(sigh)
*flops over in corner of stupidity*
...I don't have any words of wisdom. I see a lot of quotes I like as I while away my existence, but I can't remember any of them.
I liked this Wondermark comic and it's vaguely related to writing. Also, bears.
I'm contributing.
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She's not "fondling" anything. It's YA, perv. And letter bomb? No idea what you're talking about.
You come up with the best ideas.
Okay, derail over. Back to OP in 5, 4, ...
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OK, I really botched my earlier post, didn't I. Here's the real Daniel Boone quote I like so much:
"I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days."
I intend for it to apply to AW posting as well as fiction writing.
"I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days."
I intend for it to apply to AW posting as well as fiction writing.
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