fbpx

Writers on writing

I love quotes. I love snarky ones, inspirational ones, and clever ones. I love those seemingly obvious ones that hit you at just the right time so that their meaning clangs inside your brain like a weight dropped from a great height, rendering your mental landscape forever changed.

I also, perhaps unsurprisingly, love quotes about writing and creativity. This new regular blog feature (whoop) will showcase some of my favourites.

To kick things off, a couple of sentences from bestselling novelist and creator of Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton

Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.

To balance that with a more positive take on revision, here’s Robert Cormier:

The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

And with that, I will get back to work.

«
»

6 responses to “Writers on writing”

  1. Luisa Plaja Avatar

    So true. And I love quotes too! Thanks for a great post, Sarah. xx

  2. Sarah Avatar

    Thanks, Luisa! Hope your work is going well! xx

  3. kathils Avatar

    Love the quotes. Although the Crichton one makes me cringe. I think I’m on my 5th re-write and sooooo hoping I’m done. LOL

    1. Sarah Avatar

      I feel your pain, Kathils. Thanks for visiting!

  4. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    I love a quote or two. I’ve shared my favourite with you before:

    “I love deadlines – I like the whooshing noise they make as they go past” – Douglas Adams.

    I also like that one that goes something like “a professional writer is an amateur writer who didn’t quit” but I can’t remember who said it.

    Damn.

    Unfortunately I’m at that evil point with my WIP where the only quote that matters is Zaphod Beeblebrox saying recurrently in my mind “right now I need aphorisms like I need holes in my heads”.

    If I am to meet our face off challenge of finishing draft one by the end of January I had better stop procrastinating by reading inspirational things and just knuuckle down and damn well be inspired.

    Eek.

    1. Sarah Avatar

      Yep, me too… Have you seen the sorry state of my word counter thingy? Oh dear.