Quote of the Week

This week’s quote comes from Jane Green, author of The Beach House. I love this quote because sometimes logging my daily word count feels more like something I have to do than something I love to do. It’s nice to know I’m not the only writer who struggles with not always wanting to write!

“Writing requires more than anything else, tremendous discipline. At the end of the day, whilst there are times when it is wonderfully creative and fun, a lot of the time it is just a job. And that means showing up whether you feel like it or not. It also means you write, whether you are inspired or not, and the only way to unlock your creativity is to start writing.” – Jane Green

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

This week’s quote comes from C.S. Lewis, author of many of my favorite classics. He’s probably most famous for his Chronicles of Narnia series. I really liked this quote as it offers some wonderful advice about showing and not telling in writing.

“Don’t say it was delightful; make us say delightful when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, ‘Please will you do the job for me?'” – C.S. Lewis

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

Welcome to today’s quote of the week. As I was looking up information about Andrew Lane for yesterday’s author profile post (which you can find here: https://concerningwriting.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/author-profile-andrew-lane/) I stumbled across a quote from him where he gives his #1 writing tip. So, in following yesterday’s theme, today’s quote comes from Andrew Lane, author of the young Sherlock Holmes series! 🙂

“Read lots of stuff. You need to do that for two reasons – firstly so that you can see what’s already been done (you don’t want to spend three years writing about a teenage wizard at a boarding school only to find out that J.K.Rowling got there first) and secondly because you’ll find some really badly written books out there and you’ll think to yourself ‘I can do better than that’ – which is the first step towards actually trying to do better than that.” – Andrew Lane

~ Kayla

 

Quote of the Week

Welcome to the quote of the week! This week’s quote comes from William Faulkner, a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author.

“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” -William Faulkner

I’m currently reading The Tempest and Jane Eyre in school, and I’m eagerly awaiting episode 6 of Chautona Havig’s The Diary of a De-Cluttering Junkie.  What are you reading right now?

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

Hope you’re having a good “Quote of the Week” day! Today’s quote comes from Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

“You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.” — Junot Díaz

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

Welcome to the quote of the week! Today’s quote comes from Anne Tyler, a Pulitzer Prize winning fiction writer. I like this quote because there are some nights when I really don’t feel like writing. I’ve learned I can’t rely on my emotions to tell me when to write; rather, I have to write during the time that I have set aside for it. Usually, once I finally start writing, I don’t want to stop!

“If I waited till I felt like writing, I’d never write at all.”
― Anne Tyler

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

Welcome to the quote of the week! Today’s quote is from Neil Gaiman, author of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I really like this quote because a lot of time writing takes over my life, especially when I’m working on one novel for a while. It’s as if all I do is sleep, eat, and dream that book!

“When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: ‘House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.” – Neil Gaiman

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

Happy “Quote of the Week-day!” Today’s quote comes from Ruth Stout, author of The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book. I’m not a published author yet, but I definitely hope to one day write a book “that people can be bothered to read.” Disclaimer: I do not advocate stealing books, novels, or written work of any kind, no matter how happy that may make an author and prove to them that their book is popular; I’m sure they would still appreciate getting paid. 😉

“It’s a fair-sized job to write a book that people can be bothered just to read; when they begin to steal copies, you are really getting some place.” – Ruth Stout

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

It’s already another “Quote of the Week-day!” Today’s quote is from Lynne Alpern, author of Oh, Lord, I Sound Just Like Mama. This quote is a humorous reminder that (1) you have to be committed to writing and (2) to stay focused while writing! When I first heard the quote, in Writing Conversations by Cherie K. Miller, I was seriously tempted to buy some superglue. But I didn’t want to ruin my jeans. 🙂

“This is the secret to writing: a tube of super glue. You apply the glue to the seat of your pants, and then apply your pants to the seat of the chair.” – Lynne Alpern.

~ Kayla

Quote of the Week

Happy “Quote of the Week-day!” Today’s quote is from an unknown source, and I’m not even sure where I found it. I remember that I had sent myself an email a while back with some writing advice I had found on the internet. I like this quote because no matter how badly I think I’m writing that day (and that has been a theme lately in my writing), that it could be worse by sitting there and not writing anything at all. So, if I write, I’m making some sort of progress. Perhaps this is a reminder all writers could use every now and then. 🙂

“The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you didn’t write.” – Unknown

~ Kayla