All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you write, in whatever genre or medium,
your task is to make things up convincingly and interestingly and new. Neil Gaiman
Writing
a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan and a course laid out. John Gardner
You must learn to overcome your very natural and appropriate revulsion for your
own work. William Gibson
If you read good books, when you write, good books
will come out of you. Natalie Goldberg
The ideas aren't that important. Really
they aren't. Everyone's got an idea for a book, a movie, a story, a TV series. Neil Gaiman
You need more than a beginning if you're going to start a book. If all you have is a beginning, then once you've
written that beginning, you have nowhere to go. Neil Gaiman
The writer's genetic
inheritance and her or his experiences shape the writer into a unique individual, and it is this uniqueness that is the writer's
only stuff for sale. James Gunn
In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all
but inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition, perhaps including
his own doubts, and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw. John Gardner
Rule one
of reading other people's stories is that whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author tells you that's the bit
that wasn't made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing. Neil Gaiman
Story is to human beings what the pearl is to the oyster. Joseph Gold
Our
lives with all their miracles and wonders are merely a discontinuous string of incidents – until we create the narrative
that gives them meaning Arlene Goldbard
If you haven't got an idea, start a
story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you'll
only have to throw away the first three pages.William Campbell Gault
Stories
may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent. Neil Gaiman
Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have
to arouse your reader's desire to know what happens, to unravel the mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it,
keep it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a time, as your story goes on. That's called suspense. It can bring
desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good position to bring off a wonderful climax. Colin Greenland
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would
write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Writing wasn’t easy to start. After I finally did it, I realized it was the most direct contact possible with
the part of myself I thought I had lost, and which I constantly find new things from. Writing also includes the possibility
of living many lives as well as living in any time or world possible. I can satisfy my enthusiasm for research, but jump like
a calf outside the strict boundaries of science. I can speak about things that are important to me and somebody listens. It’s
wonderful! Virpi Hämeen-Anttila
I write to teach myself what I already
know. Duane Alan Hahn
Writers seldom write the things they think. They simply
write the things they think other folks think they think. Elbert Hubbard
They're
fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talk about
writing or themselves. Lillian Hellman
In a good play, everyone is in the right.
Fredrich Hebbel
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. Alfred Hitchcock
The essence of drama is that man cannot walk away from the consequences of his own deeds. Harold
Hayes
To write fiction, one needs a whole series of inspirations about people
in an actual environment, and then a whole lot of work on the basis of those inspirations. Aldous Huxley
Half of my life is an act of revision.—John Irving
I
went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.—Erica Jong
The two most engaging powers of an author are, to make new things familiar, and familiar things
new. Samuel Johnson
Before you use a fancy word, make room for it. Joseph Joubert
It is crazy even to ask what creativity is. It would be just as useful to interview
a caraway plant in your garden and ask: "How did you decided to be a spice?" Eeva Kilpi
Fiction writers, present company included, don't understand very much about what they do - not why it works when
it's good, not why it doesn't when it's bad. Stephen King
It's hard for me to
believe that people who read very little - or not at all in some cases - should presume to write and expect people to like
what they have written. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time - or the tools
- to write. Simple as that. Stephen King
One of the really bad things you can
do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your
short ones. Stephen King
If you don't have the time to read, you don't have
the time or the tools to write. Stephen King
I try to create sympathy for my
characters, then turn the monsters loose. Stephen King
Fiction is a lie, and
good fiction is the truth inside the lie. Stephen King
Use your imagination.
Trust me, your lives are not interesting. Don't write them down.W. B. Kinsella
Stories
open up new paths, sometimes send us back to old ones, and close off still others. Telling and listening to stories we too
imaginatively walk down those paths – paths of longing, paths of hope, paths of desperation. Arthur Kleinman
Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up. Nancy Kress
It's
hard for me to believe that people who read very little - or not at all in some cases - should presume to write and expect
people to like what they have written. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the
time - or the tools - to write. Simple as that. Stephen King
One of the really
bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little
bit ashamed of your short ones. Stephen King
Authors who never give you something
to disagree with never give you anything to think about.Michael LaRocca
Close
the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure
out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer. Barbara Kingsolver
Stupidity is no excuse of not thinking. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Writing
is a fairly lonely business unless you invite people in to watch you do it, which is often distracting and then have to ask
them to leave. Marc Lawrence
We are a species that needs and wants to understand
who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little. Anne Lamott
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. John Lennon
If
you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something
and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow. Louis L’Amour
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after
it with a club. Jack London
The story is not in the plot but in the telling.
Ursula K. LeGuin
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the
journey that matters in the end. Ursula K. LeGuin
Hardly anybody ever writes
anything nice about introverts. Extroverts rule. This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty
are introverts. We are been taught to be ashamed of not being 'outgoing'. But a writer's job is ingoing. Ursula K. LeGuin
Writing makes no noise, except groans, and it can be done everywhere, and it is done alone.Ursula
K. LeGuin
You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able
to take a break from being a writer. Stephen Leigh
At night, when the objective world has slunk back into its cavern and left dreamers to their own, there come inspirations
and capabilities impossible at any less magical and quiet hour. No one knows whether or not he is a writer unless he has tried
writing at night. H. P. Lovecraft
When once the itch of literature comes over
a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. Samuel Lover
Don't
use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'. Otherwise you'll have no word left when you
want to talk about something really infinite.C. S. Lewis
Great is the art of
beginning, but greater is the art of ending. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Reality
leaves a lot to the imagination. John Lennon
The story is not in the plot but
in the telling. Ursula K. LeGuin
My most important piece of advice to all you
would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip. Elmore Leonard
The exit is usually where the entrance was. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Do
not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to
do the same with his pen. Maimonides
Anecdotes don't make good stories. Generally
I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.
Alice Munro
All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary
- it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences. Somerset Maugham
The
secret of becoming a writer is to write, write and keep on writing. Ken MacLeod
We
do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. Somerset Maugham
I
never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this. Cormac
McCarthy
Writing is its own reward. Henry Miller
Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception
of wrestling alligators. Olin Miller
Almost anyone can be an author; the business
is to collect money and fame from this state of being. A. A. Milne
The only
time I know that something is true is the moment I discover it in the act of writing. Jean Malaquais
In the same way that a woman becomes a prostitute. First I did it to please myself, then I did it to please my friends,
and finally I did it for money. Ferenc Molnar asked about how he became a writer
For
anyone who is: just keep writing. Keep reading. If you are meant to be a writer, a storyteller, it’ll work itself out.
You just keep feeding it your energy, and giving it that crucial chance to work itself out. By reading and writing. Robin
McKinley
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. Herman Melville
The task of a writer consists in being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas Mann
The first step to becoming a better writer is believing your own
experience is worth writing about. Peter Marmorek
There are no dull subjects.
There are only dull writers. H.L. Mencken
When you take stuff from one writer,
it's plagiarism. But when you take it from many writers, it's research. William Mizner
The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet live very
little. Michel de Montaigne
For all my longer works, for example novels, I write
chapter outlines so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on. Garth Nix
I write to tell stories. I believe that there a some professions in the world that will last forever: doctor or a
nurse, teacher, builder and a storyteller. I write also to become myself, more so day by day. Writing is a way to shape out
visible and invisible, in myself as well as in the world. Eppu Nuotio
We write
to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection. Anais Nin
One hasn't
become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has
to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating.
Niyi Osundare
Nighttime is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there
to be yours because everyone else is asleep. Catherine O'Hara
Thus, in a real
sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility. Katherine
Paterson
No tale tells all. Alexei Panshin
Through joy and through sorrow, I wrote. Through hunger and through thirst, I wrote. Through good report and through
ill report, I wrote. Through sunshine and through moonshine, I wrote. What I wrote it is unnecessary to say. Edgar A. Poe
There's no such thing as writer's
block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write. Terry Pratchett
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling
Through joy and through sorrow, I wrote. Through hunger and through thirst,
I wrote. Through
good report and through ill report, I wrote. Through sunshine
and through moonshine, I wrote. What I wrote it is unnecessary to say. Edgar A. Poe
There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't
write. Terry Pratchett
One has to live a life that creates a writer. Erno Paasilinna
Most beginning writers - and I was the same - are like chefs trying to cook
great dishes that they've never tasted themselves. How can you make a great - or even an adequate - bouillabaisse if you've
never had any? If you don't really understand why people read mysteries - or romances or literary novels or thrillers or whatever
- then there's no way in the world you're going to write one that anyone wants to publish. This is the meaning of the well-known
expression "Write what you know." Daniel Quinn
Writing is the best
way to talk without being interrupted. Jules Renard
Truth maybe stranger than
fiction, but fiction is truer. Frederic Raphael
Say all you have to say in the
fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand
them. John Ruskin
Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it's about
dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates. Mordecai Richler
Writing energy is like anything else. The more you put in, the more you get out. Richard Reeves
Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you
earn no money. Jules Renard
The skill of writing is to create a context in which
other people can think. Edwin Schlossberg
Resist the temptation to try to use
dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance. Stanley Schmidt
Some men see
things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. George Bernard Shaw
Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody
and scarcely anyone will care for it. Jesse Stuart
Don't mistake a good setup
for a satisfying conclusion -- many beginning writers end their stories when the real story is just ready to begin. Stanley
Schmidt
When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane,
most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that exalted, abnormal,
and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.George Bernard Shaw
I
write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself. Tom Stoppard
What's hard, in hacking as in fiction, is not writing, it's deciding what to write. Neal Stephenson
Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know." Wislawa Szymborska
If you don't know it, don't write it. Darrell Schweitzer
Why wouldn't you write to escape yourself as much as you might write to express yourself. It's far
more interesting to write about others. Susan Sontag
Resist the temptation to
try to use dazzling style to conceal weakness of substance. Stanley Schmidt
If
you don't know it, don't write it. Darrell Schweitzer
Suit the action to the
word, the word to the action. William Shakespeare
There are no rules in writing.
There are useful principles. Throw them away when they're not useful. But always know what you're throwing away. Will Shetterly
Moving around is good for creativity: the next line of dialogue that you desperately
need may well be waiting in the back of the refrigerator or half a mile along your favorite walk. Will Shetterly
Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. But not necessarily in that order. Robert Silverberg
The first chapter sells the book. The last chapter sells the next book. Mickey
Spillane
When in doubt, blow something up. J. Michael Straczynski
I write fiction because it's a way of making statements I can disown. Tom Stoppard
I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. Stephen King
