Quotes about writing
writing past trying
It is clear that when you write a story that takes place in the past, you try to show what really happened in those times. But you are always moved by the suspicion that you are also showing something about our contemporary world. Umberto Eco
writing ideas creating
An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.
writing media careers
A lot of people can figure out the social media aspect of it, or the merchandising aspect, or whatever and get enough momentum to start a career. To sustain it, you have to keep writing and you have to keep creating. Tyler Hilton
writing numbers feelings
There's the underlying feeling that writing must be easy, because it's all about putting letters together. That's only true in the same way that programming is all about putting numbers together. Rhianna Pratchett
writing people matter
The truth of the matter is that when you write about religion like I do, you're writing about something that people take very seriously. Reza Aslan
writing simple two
Two very simple rules: A. You don't have to write. B. You can't do anything else The rest comes of itself. Raymond Chandler
writing perception criticism
Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.
writing eye loss
Writers who get written about become self-conscious. They develop a regrettable habit of looking at themselves through the eyes of other people. They are no longer alone, they have an investment in critical praise, and they think they must protect it. This leads to a diffusion of effort. The writer watches himself as he works. He grows more subtle and he pays for it by loss of organic dash.
writing style investment
The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.
writing passion technique
Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder.
writing years want
The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.
writing mind tools
I just like being all over the place and writing whatever comes to mind. Having the tools? It's such a gift. Regina Spektor
writing thinking doe
Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get to Sentence Z. The hard part of writing isn't the writing; it's the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next? William Zinsser
writing always-working
A writer is always working.
writing competition trying
Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.
writing thinking trying
Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know-and what we don't know-about whatever we're trying to learn.
writing jargon disease
Clutter is the disease of American writing,
writing tasks shapes
One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
writing thinking process
Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.
writing want helping
There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.
writing artist piano
Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into the artist's head and into his problems and solutions. Or we can go there with another writer.
writing simplicity humanity
My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
writing blueprints
Writing is no respecter of blueprints.
writing good-writing
Good writing is lean and confident.
writing ratios direct
Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there.
writing voice quality
Finding a voice that your readers will enjoy is largely a matter of taste. Saying that isn't much help-taste is a quality so intangible that it can't even be defined. But we know it when we meet it.
writing stronger gone
Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with "but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
writing thinking paper
Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.
writing
You learn to write by writing.
writing secret sentences
The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components,
writing essence games
Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.
writing doe needs
You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
writing pride sight
If you would like to write better than everybody else, you have to want to write better than everybody else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft. And you must be willing to defend what you've written against the various middlemen - editors, agents and publishers - whose sights may be different from yours, whose standards not so high.