Aspiring Writers Quotes

• There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Moving On, Powerful

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from Feb 14, 2013

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• If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.

  Dorothy Parker

  Friendship, Happy, Writing

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• If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

  Toni Morrison

  Inspirational, Happiness, Attitude

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• There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Writing, Bad Ass, Typewriters

  "Exclusive: Never-Before-Seen Photos from Hemingway's Childhood" by James Joiner, www.esquire.com. October 24, 2013.

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• My advice for aspiring writers is threefold.First, read as much as possible, both within and outside the genre you arem working in. By reading you hone your internal ear for style. Second, write. Everything comes down to it; unless you write, you are not a writer. Third, submit your work. But - stop chasing every seductive new market out there, and stop trying to write for the tastes of specific established professional markets and editors. That way lies mediocrity and eventual
  dissolution of your true voice, no matter how embryonic or pronounced it may be now.

  Vera Nazarian

  Lying, Reading, Writing

  Source: fantasyworlds.wordpress.com

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• The easiest way to separate yourself from the unformed blobby mass of "aspiring" writers is to a) actually write and b) actually finish. That's how easy it is to clamber up the ladder to the second echelon. Write. And finish what you write. That's how you break away from the pack and leave the rest of the sickly herd for the hungry wolves of shame and self-doubt. And for all I know, actual wolves.

  Chuck Wendig

  Writing, Self, Doubt

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• When I read students’ attempts at creative writing it is obvious immediately that most of them have not read much or widely. The aspiring writer must read everything he or she can to appreciate the myriad ways words are used and to what effect.

  Julius Lester

  Writing, Appreciate, Creative

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• The most important thing for aspiring writers is for them to give themselves permission to be brave on the page, to write in the presence of fear, to go to those places that you think you can’t write - really that’s exactly what you need to write.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Writing, Thinking, Giving

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• The one thing an aspiring writer must understand is that it's hard. If you think it's not hard, you're not doing it right.

  Gene Weingarten

  Writing, Thinking, One Thing

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• Tips for aspiring writers: don't be afraid of writing rubbish. It's very easy to become hypnotised by an empty page or screen. It's tempting to abandon a half-finished work because you can't make it perfect. I hereby give you permission to write things that aren't perfect, make mistakes, try things that don't work, experiment with styles you're not used to and generally throw words around. You'll learn much faster that way.

  Frances Hardinge

  Mistake, Writing, Giving

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• I'm an aspiring writer. I hate that phrase. You're either a writer or you're not.

  Jack Black

  Hate, Writing, Phrases

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• [M]y first published book had just appeared in stores. The last year of my life-the year of finishing it, editing it, and seeing it through its various page-proof passes-ranks among the most unnerving of my young life. It has not felt good, or freeing. It has felt nerve-shreddingly disquieting. Publication simply allows one that much more to worry about. This cannot be said to aspiring writers often or sternly enough. Whatever they carry within themselves they believe publication cures will not, I can all but guarantee, be cured. You just wind up with new diseases.

  Tom Bissell

  Believe, Book, Editing

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• The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is don't do it unless you're willing to give your whole life to it. Red wine and garlic also helps.

  Jim Harrison

  Wine, Giving, Advice

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• There is no such thing as an "aspiring writer". You are a writer. Period.

  Matthew Reilly

  Writing, Periods

  Matthew Reilly (2009). “Area 7”, p.573, Pan Macmillan

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• I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That's like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft.

  George R. R. Martin

  Book, Rocks, Climbing

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• Fear of failure is the reason most often cited to explain why so many aspiring writers never realize their dreams. But I think it’s that same fear of failure that absolutely invigorates those who do push through-that is, the fear of not being heard.

  Betsy Lerner

  Dream, Thinking, Realizing

  Betsy Lerner (2016). “The Forest for the Trees: An editor's advice to writers”, p.13, Pan Macmillan

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• I would give them (aspiring writers) the oldest advice in the craft: Read and write. Read a lot. Read new authors and established ones, read people whose work is in the same vein as yours and those whose genre is totally different. You've heard of chain-smokers. Writers, especially beginners, need to be chain-readers. And lastly, write every day. Write about things that get under your skin and keep you up at night.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Writing, Night, Genre Is

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• I think when you are an aspiring writer, you must write every day. It's not as though anybody will call you up on the phone and say, "I understand you are a very promising, aspiring writer and I'm going to give you this assignment." You have to create it yourself or it's never going to happen.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Writing, Thinking, Phones

  Goodreads Interview, www.goodreads.com. January, 2010.

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• A lot of aspiring writers are all ready to write a novel, but they don't know how to write sentences.

  Tom Robbins

  Writing, Novel, Ready

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• To aspiring writers, I say : Don't give up. Storytelling has been an integral part of the human condition since the beginning of time. Don't let anyone tell you your dreams don't have value. They do.

  Beverly Jenkins

  Dream, Giving Up, Don't Give Up

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• Right now with blogs and the flood of internet access, a multitude of aspiring writers think they're ready for prime time. They're not. Be great. Read. Write. Bust your ass. Learn and find your voice. As hard as you think it is, it's a hundred times harder.

  Steven Pressfield

  Writing, Thinking, Voice

  "10 Questions with Steven Pressfield, Author of The War of Art". Interview with Jeff Goins, goinswriter.com. May 11, 2011.

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• It's not easy making a living as a writer, and for many years I worked at a Waterstones in Dublin. It was a good environment for an aspiring writer, with lots of events and authors appearing.

  John Boyne

  Years, Events, Dublin

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• I am dismayed to realize that much of the advice I used to parcel out to aspiring writers has passed its sell-by date.

  Susan Orlean

  Advice, Realizing, Used

  "Advice" by Susan Orlean, www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2010.

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• Chekhov used to correspond with aspiring writers, and once he gave this advice to Maxim Gorky when he was encouraging him to pare his wordy sentences: "When someone expends the least amount of motion on a given action, that's grace." The short story, by definition, embodies this notion of grace, because it requires such forceful compression to achieve its effects.

  Catherine Brady

  Advice, Grace, Stories

  Source: therumpus.net

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• In college, I think I probably positioned myself as an aspiring writer, meaning I dressed sort of extravagantly and adopted all the semi-Byronic affectations, as if I were writing, although I wasn't actually doing any writing.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Writing, College, Thinking

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