35 Quotes on Writing from Famous Authors to Inspire You
Writing is hard work, and no one knows this better than the people who do it faithfully, passionately, relentlessly, day after day. So how do they do it?
Writing the First Sentence
When you fill a blank page with your first sentence it can feel like a minor miracle. From nothing: something. From too many ideas about how to begin your essay, novel, nonfiction book, you home in on one and make your initial authorial decision. You may change that first sentence dozens of times, but by...
The Unplugged Writer: Take a Writing Retreat Day
I asked myself: What is it about going away that makes my writing so productive? The answer was this: No one knows where I am. When I went away to write, I was unplugged.
Writer's High
My drug of choice in college was Vitamin B-1. An allegedly healthy version of speed, it not only kept me up all night so I could meet an English Lit deadline—it kept me way up: enthused, imaginative, eloquent, ultra-brilliant. Or so I thought. One night, through my B-1 eyes, my Daniel Defoe essay became downright...
On Writing and Revelation
Writing is lonely, difficult work, and on top of that, anyone who wants to master the craft of writing fiction has to self-reveal. This surprises people. Many novelists believe that they need only lose themselves in a character, but the truth is that a writer of fiction needs to dig deep in order to feel...
Writing Is Rewriting Is Rewriting Is Rewriting
Everyone's doing it—your kindergarten teacher, your car mechanic, your acupuncturist, that nosy neighbor across the street—so why can't you? It's not brain surgery, after all, and the only heavy lifting required is raising finger to keyboard, and voila, you're a writer! Or … not. Writing may not be brain surgery, but it's definitely surgical, and...