Great Quotes from Great Writers

Often we run into problems. Obstacles in our writing. Little annoying problems that we aren’t sure what to do about. But others have been there. And here are some great quotes I’ve found over the years that will hopefully be as helpful to you as they were to me!

 

 “At any given moment you have the power to say, this is NOT how the story is going to end.” –Unknown

“We edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” –Arthur Plotnik

“A writer’s life is a strange mix of, “Wow, I wrote THAT?” and “Oh, wow, I wrote that.”” –Unknown

“What doesn’t kill us gives us something new to write about.” –Julie Wright

“Write it so that people can hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” –Maya Angelou

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…. Is what makes it great.” –A league of their own

“The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its READER instead of its writer.” –Ladie Smith

“Creativity takes courage.” –Henri Matisse

“Listen to music to find a way into the story you’re telling. Music is incredibly evocative: find the right piece that reflects the world you’re writing about, and you’re halfway there.” –Anthony Neilson

“Treat your secondary characters like they think the book’s about them.” –Jocelyn Hughes

“Writing to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” –Isaac Asimov

“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” –Seth Godin

“And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things- Childhood, Certainties, Cities, Doubts, Dreams, Instants, Phrases, Parents, Loves- that go on slipping , like sand, through our fingers.” –Salman Rushdie

“Bad decisions make awesome stories…” –Unknown

“Three paragraphs a day, keeps the writer’s block away.” –Unknown

“You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.” –Doris Lessing

“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” –Jeanette Winterson

“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.”
—Allen Ginsberg, WD

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”
—Hunter S. Thompson

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
—Samuel Johnson

“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”
—Doris Lessing

“Style is to forget all styles.”
—Jules Renard

“I don’t believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.”
—Ray Bradbury, WD

Hope these will serve helpful to you! Have a happy new year’s!

 -Hannah W.

Descriptions-Part 1

Salutations Writers,  

  

 Before I really start talking about today’s topic, I thought I ought to say something that I forgot to put into our Welcome Post. Hannah and I will be writing on Tuesdays and Fridays. We might occasionally have to post something on Saturday, or decide that we want to post something on Monday, but Tuesday/Friday will be our basic blogging calendar. 

    Now on to today’s subject!  I thought for one of our first post, I would start a small series of post about descriptions (i.e. Characters, places, etc.). Today, I will be talking about Character descriptions. 

  When you are writing a Character description, one thing that you will want to stay away from is a parts list. Some times, when I am going through and editing a chapter of my book I will read something like this:

 A tall, bald man who had tan skin, blue eyes, and moccasins walked in the door.

Gee…. that is a beautiful description. What I just wrote was (in my opinion) a parts list. I listed character traits, but when you read through them, it is boring, dull, and unexciting. 

    When you are writing a Character Description, you need to paint a verbal picture for your reader, and don’t worry about using the bold oil paints. Your description needs to live and breathe in the reader’s mind.  Stay away from the average features (like the features that you might have to fill in on the doctors office form.) Add birthmarks, and tell us what makes your character unique. What makes this person frightening, jolly, shy, or sick? Does your character have gnarled face, red cheeks, which are the color of roses, a furrowed brow and eyes that continually stray away towards the corner? These are tiny details. Little pixels that, when pieced together, make a painting of your character. 

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a masterful description of Strider, in The Fellowship Of The Ring.  
     

         “Suddenly Frodo noticed a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.” 

 Tokien- Fellowship of the ring-p 153

This description perfectly explains strider’s character, without even a single word of dialogue. 

  Another (shorter) description can be found in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

            "A tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes stood there She had a very stern face and Harry’s first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

Rowling-Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s Stone- Chapter 7 pg113

This description is short, but it shows a lot of foreshadowing into Professor McGonagall’s character. J. K. Rowling wrote about her facial expressions in order to portray the Professor’s character traits.

That is all I have for today, my fellow writers. Hannah will post another entry on Tuesday! I hope you all found that helpful!

Salutations and a belated Merry Christmas,  

Emily K.

Welcome!

Salutations friends and welcome to the blog!

Writing a book is a journey. It isn’t a road that you can take in a day, but a life-long walk. I am still only on the beginning of my writing road, but every time I sit down to write I seem to grow, little by little in my life as an author. 

  My name is Emily K. and my friend, Hannah W, and I have decided to start a blog about writing. I have been writing for four years now, and I have loved every second! I think I even remember the first story I wrote, and as I remember it had a plot line that contained a princess, a horse, and a castle. Yes, that was it. Oh, the silly stories of childhood! My dearest friend and co-author has been writing since she was 11 years old, and from the moment she picked up a pencil, words began to flow onto the paper that were as valuable as gold. (in my opinion) We might not be famous or published authors yet, but we have felt the sadness of a failed first draft, or the trouble of writing a love triangle. Hopefully we might be able to help some of you along your writing journey, as we walk down the path ourselves! Hannah and I dearly hope that you will enjoy what we write, and find our posts helpful!   

Salutations,

Emily K. & Hannah W.