Staying motivated as a writer is sometimes difficult. One of the things I’ve done in my office is post motivational quotes to keep me going. As I am in a bad writing spot at the moment, I need them. Here are some of my favorites:
- “You can fix anything but a blank page.” Nora Roberts
- “The first draft of anything is shit.” Ernest Hemingway
- “It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.” C. J. Cherryh
- “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Ernest Hemingway
- “There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you’re writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” Agatha Christie
- “Literature — creative literature — unconcerned with sex, is inconceivable.” Gertrude Stein
- “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” Mark Twain
- “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Anton Chekhov
- “I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” Elmore Leonard
- “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” E.L. Doctorow
And since I found these on the internet, please forgive me if they aren’t exactly correct or attributed to the wrong person. Do you have favorite motivational quotes?
Just do it.
Good advice. That slogan has endured through many years.
Three from the McD course that fit together beautifully:
It’s A Process,
Don’t Look Down, and
Nothing But Good Times Ahead.
It’s a process is also on my bulletin board. And on a t-shirt now that I think about it. We can attribute that to Jennifer Crusie, although others have said it, I’m sure.
Love these! Some of my favorites:
“Writing is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.” — Terry Pratchett. Sometimes I forget how fun writing can be, and this always reminds me of those dizzying times when writing is an absolute orgasm.
Wonderful quote from James Thurber: “I write humor the way a surgeon operates, because it is a livelihood, because I have a great urge to do it, because many interesting challenges are set up, and because I have the hope it may do some good.” (This one is from http://thurberhouse.org/quotable-quotes.html so I think it is pretty reliable.)
“I hate writing. I love having written.” — Dorothy Parker. Because sometimes writing is just like that. Can apply to swimming, walking for no purpose, decluttering and other activities that are half joy, half drudge-work.
My very favorite quote is actually about reading.
“Reading books in one’s youth is like looking at the moon through a crevice; reading books in middle age is like looking at the moon in one’s courtyard; and reading books in old age is like looking at the moon on an open terrace.” ― Lin Yutang, The Importance Of Living
Isn’t this so important in writing, too? We can only capture our understanding at one point in life, and if we don’t capture it NOW, we will never be able to capture quite the same nuances and meaning and words ever again. It’s like the old saying that says you never cross the same river twice. So, it’s encouragement to finish now, capture that moment, and be ready to catch the next moments. That’s where my writing thoughts are taking me right now. (And probably why I feel I’m a short-form writer! So hard to keep a long-form work in my head and fresh for a year or two or three!)
I like those, Michaeline. The first reminded me of a Christina Dodd post I read today about romance novels:
— According to a study cited by Dr. Joyce Brothers, women who read romance novels make love seventy-four percent more often than women who don’t read romance novels.
— According to special research from the British Medical Journal, the more orgasms you have, the longer you’re likely to live.
From this Link:
http://christinadodd.com/christina-dodd-says-be-healthy-read-romance/
They don’t speak to motivation in general, but do bolster the romance writer who regularly gets dissed.
I have a couple quotes that I think are from Jenny and our class, but I’m not sure…she might have pulled them from elsewhere:
“Make your protagonist DO, not be done to.”
“Character is choice under pressure.”
“In each scene there must be conflict and change. It must move the story forward.”
This one, by Lydia M. Child, is simply fun: “I was gravely warned by some of my female acquaintances that no woman could expect to be regarded as a lady after she had written a book.”
I love the Lydia Child one. Another funny one is Stephen Wright (the comedian): “I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.”
Love him! Maybe that’s what I’m doing wrong — maybe I should start with the page numbers, LOL.
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