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Writers’ Quotes on Writing – The Last Dozen
By Deb Gallardo
This post concludes my 7-part series of compelling writers’ quotes on the Writing Life. I hope you’ve enjoyed them and have Stumbled, Dugg and Tweeted about all of them. If not, here is the link to the archive for the quotes in their entirety.
Writers’ Quotes on Writing Archive (Opens in new window)
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
A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God. ~ Sidney Sheldon
The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book. ~ Mickey Spillane
One writes … not out of the leaves of trees still to be observed, nor by means of botany and soil-science; but it grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mold of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps. No doubt there is much personal selection, as with a gardener: what one throws on one’s personal compost-heap; and my mold is evidently made largely of linguistic matter. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
As for the adjective, when in doubt leave it out. ~ Mark Twain
I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten, — happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. ~ Brenda Ueland
Inside every fat book is a thin book trying to get out. ~ Unknown
I suspect that one of the reasons we create fiction is to make sex exciting. ~ Gore Vidal
The adjective is the enemy of the noun. ~ Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
The image that fiction presents is purged of the distractions, confusions and accidents of ordinary life. ~ Robert Penn Warren
A story isn’t about a moment in time, a story is about the moment in time. ~ W. D. Wetherell
One of my standard — and fairly true — responses to the question as to how story ideas come to me is that story ideas only come to me for short stories. With longer fiction, it is a character (or characters) coming to visit, and I am then obliged to collaborate with him/her/it/them in creating the story. ~ Roger Zelazny
Related Posts
- Writers’ Quotes on Writing – Dozen Four
- Writers’ Quotes on Writing – A Fifth Dozen
- Writers’ Quotes on Writing – The First Dozen
- Writing Tips from the Experts
- Writers’ Quotes on Writing – Dozen Number Three
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