I found some great quotes about writing recently on a great little blog called Bang2Write.
Here are some of them - and my own thoughts on how they apply to the writing life.
ON STARTING OUT
“You don’t start out writing good stuff … you start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” - Octavia E. Butler
source: Nikolas Coukouma
And isn’t it true?
I wrote my first work of absolute genius when I was eighteen.
I cringe now when I think of how I actually sent that stuff to literary agents.
But then it’s a curious business.
Because while we’re thinking we’re insanely brilliant we also believe deep in our hearts that we’re not.
“The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt.” - Sylvia Plath
ON WRITING WELL
“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People give you all sorts of advice about writing but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.” - Meg Cabot.
That’s good advice, and so is this:
“Write what should not be forgotten.” - Isabel Allende
ON DIGGING DEEPER
They say that nothing bad can ever happen to a writer - because everything is research. I have found this to be true, though I have sometimes wished it wasn’t.
“Write about the emotions you fear the most.” - Laurie Halse Anderson.
To be this naked in what we write is one of the hardest things to do - and also the most worthwhile.
Zadie Smith had this to say about it:
“You are never stronger than when you land on the other side of despair.”
First, of course, you have to get through the despair.
ON FOLLOWING YOUR HEART
“Everybody said: ‘Follow your heart. I did. It got broken.”
source: nrkbeta
I’ll bet London to a brick you can’t guess who said that. (I’ll tell you at the end.)
But I find it profound - by following my heart, in business and in love, I got mine broken too.
It wasn’t meant to be like that. But then, if it had turned out like a Hollywood movie I would have learned nothing.
ON FEAR OF FAILURE
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” - Paolo Coelho.
I have a very good friend who’s an enormously talented writer - but no one will ever know it, because she won’t put her work out there. She has been very successful at so many other pursuits until now - but I believe she is terrified at failing at the one thing she dreams of succeeding at.
Yet even failure is essential if we’re to grow.
“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.” - Thomas Edison.
And in the end we fail or succeed by differing amounts. I relate best to what Lucy said to Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon.
‘You learn more when you lose, Charlie Brown!’ And he says: ‘Well then, I must be the smartest person in the world!’
Is it important anyway? Perhaps all that really matters is what we learn about life and about ourselves along the way.
Oh and the quote about following your heart?
Agatha Christie!
This month Deanna, Laurel and Mary won copies of the first book in my William Shakespeare Detective Agency series - and I also gave away Kindle copies to a dozen others.
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