I love writing quotes. I love short one or two sentence snippets that give me that itch to sit down and type something great. Going through Pinterest boards full of creative pictures paired with that quote can give me the boost I need to get on with my day and make something.
But there are three writing quotes in particular I always go back to when I’m feeling stuck.
1. Write to Give Yourself Strength
I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.
—Joss Whedon
There’s something about the simplistic style of this quote about writing that gets to the heart of what it means to be a writer.
When we can find the words to say out loud, we can find them easily on paper. Our dreams and fears can be explored safely in the written world, which can then inspire us to explore it outside of the page.
Even just writing about this makes me want to open a new document and try something new.
2. Writing is Magic
Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
—J.K. Rowling, spoken by Albus Dumbledore
It doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing, if you’ve written something, you’ve created magic.
You’ve turned a blank page into something that can transport someone to another world. Using nothing but a piece of paper and a pencil, you can make people laugh or cry, inspire them to do something great, or just tell a story that entertains someone.
If that’s not magical, I don’t know what is.
3. Write Until Your Soul Is Empty
I will write until not a single word remains in my soul. Until every story in my heart has been told. Until my mind’s well of ideas is bone dry. And even then I will write on, because writing is not just something I do, but part of who I am.
—Kathy R. Jeffords (get the print!)
Last but not least, this quote about writing reminds me the reason why I started writing in the first place.
Because I love writing with every bit of who I am. That’s as simple as it gets.
And as long as I can still pick up a pen, I’ll keep writing.
Do you have any favorite quotes about writing? Let me know in the comments section.
PRACTICE
Go to Pinterest, Google, one of our lists of quotes about writing, or anywhere you’d like and find for a quote about writing that inspires you. When a writing quote jumps out and gives you that spark of inspiration, read it a few times, and then free write for fifteen minutes.
Share your writing quote and your resulting practice in the comments, if you’d like, and be sure to give your fellow writers some love, too.
Good luck!
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
-Thomas Mann
True!
I write because words give me insomnia.
I write because i cannot run away from my words.
I write because i read and when i read i write.
I had written this on my blog sometime back, you can read more here >> http://wairimumurigi.blogspot.co.ke/2015/07/to-my-tribe.html
Thanks mam I learnt a new word.
Here’s a poem.
My finger’s danced on the keys.
The sound of the laptop whirred.
like the hum of bees.
My characters appeared in front of me
and in sadness, grief.
fell down to their knees.
You are stuck in bind with a story.
but with poems you are free.
each can be dark and gory.
As we ‘show don’t tell’
some of us struggle
others do it well.
as far as we can see
a story is great.
but a poem is more …
ME!
Writing is exploring ourselves. I haven’t copied it from somewhere. I believe it. You know, everyone has their own fears & writing is the best way to explore them. You know, I used to fear shadowhunters when I was young (still I am 18, i mean childhood) but then I read so many & many books of shadowhunters that I found them interesting & guess what I started writing stories on them. It was fun. So I feel Writing is Exploring Ourselves.
This is not necessarily my favourite quote but I think it fits:
“A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.” (Source: Conversations with John LeCarre)
like 😉
I am a Christian writer, and I am inspired by two things: Bible verses and song lyrics. So I’ll give one of each:
“Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men” ~ Colossians 3:23
I’ve realized that I am not writing for any man, not for the editor or even the reader. Every word I write is written to glorify Christ, and to bring hearts to Him.
“May You stir up in me all the dreams that You’ve placed inside me,
Take all that You see, and shape it to be the story You’re writing.”
(“Lose Myself” by Tobymac)
He gave me this story, He’ll help me write the words He wants written, and He’ll bring it to places I can’t even imagine.
Thanks for the great post, Magic Violinist!
Great inspiration! I love the word of God and TobyMac’s music as well. Glad to find someone that does as well and I look forward reading what you write at The Write Practice. All the best to you!
Thanks! Always so refreshing to know there’s a fellow Christian on here, (And a fellow Tobymac fan!)
I needed this inspiration today because I received a “nice” rejection email from a contest I coveted winning! How could a children’s writer not want to win a Katherine Paterson contest? There were 15 finalists but I was not one of them. The current contest I am for which I am preparing a manuscript usually only has 8-16 entrants. Wish me good vibes that I will find the words that will inspire young readers. Thanks for the inspiring blog today.
During my research I have read some great writers who love the same genre I read. Recommendations for you YA lovers: Read anything by Sharon Draper, E.L. Konigsburg and, a new favorite, Beverly Ferber.
“Quiet people have the loudest minds.” – Stephen King
This is how I feel sometimes. There’s a lot going on that I don’t always now how to say or express, including my stories. I’ll outline some of my ideas and they’ll fall completely flat. One of them was based off of a prompt from “The Write Practice”. I haven’t touched it in months. That’s mostly because I’m working on my book, an idea I first had since I was thirteen and started pursuing seriously almost a year ago through NaNoWriMo. I’m hoping to finish by December.
I really want to be published. I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while, and I want to be able to write full time as a job. I enjoy being involved in a writing community, from sharing the work I’ve spent a week writing to getting to read other people’s works and support their stories, and I want to keep doing that. I haven’t told anyone that I know yet, probably
because I don’t know what they’ll say.
All I know is I want to keep telling stories and changing lives through those stories, if possible. Maybe it’s through the book I’m working on (fantasy) or my short stories I’ve been amassing. Maybe it’ll be something about getting outdoors and exploring (another passion of mine). I don’t know yet. The question is how to get there.
Keep reading, keep writing, keep pitching your stories.
Thanks so much!
This above quote gives me hope and courage that the writing will flow once I sit down and put my fingers on the keyboard to express my thoughts. It never fails that even the most mundane sentence can prompt my mind to pull out words that become coherent!
I forgot to enter the quote,”Start writing, no matter what.The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” by Louis L’Amour
Stephen King and Ray Bradbury have some great writing quotes. One of my favorites is by Bradbury: “You fail only if you stop writing.”
I am a sentence pig.
I grovel in words.
I wallow in phrases.
I flounder through appositives to show fields of green
I wade through paragraphs.
I long for chapters.
I pray for a novella
Oh my what would I give for a novel.
A tome of sci-fi,
of memories of west Texas,
of a curmudgeon just mumbling on a keyboard.
“curmudgeon just mumbling” is the kind of poetry that makes no word-sense to me but hits me where I get it! thanks Gary.
A couple of worthwhile—and related—quotes:
Every good story starts at a moment of threat. … Good fiction starts with — and deals with— someone’s response to threat.
— Jack M. Bickham, taken from his book
The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
Too many writers begin with a lot of informational background rather than jumping right into the story. An important skill for a writer is to know how to weave the background naturally into the story, which should never be sacrificed for the sake of information.”
— Susan Reith Swan, Assistant Editor, Story Friends.
I just finished a book that’s an excellent example of how to grab the reader’s attention. Author Barbara Freethy begins Silent Dawn with a threat, which causes an accident, which leads to the injured FMC waking with amnesia. From here on she keeps us on the edge of our seats by weaving in backstory as quick flashes of memory — never quite enough — and tells the current reality mainly through well written dialogue. Just enough MC musings to reveal important feelings.
On the other hand, I recently downloaded another book that takes the first two pages to inform readers of the MC’s location, the history of how she came to be there, her past relationship with relatives that brought her to this point, what sort of a day it is and what the lunch menu consists of today. The scene has been well set…now when will something happen?
“The golden silence is cut by your diamond words” – S’hi D’Amour
The quote has a ring to it…
There are a few writing quotes that I still remember. Toni Morrison, (don’t write what you know. Write what you don’t know.) At first, I didn’t agree with this quote, but as the years have gone by, I believe what she meant was you might have to do research on some subjects that you don’t know. There was another quote of Toni. (I wrote my first book (The bluest Eyes) because I wanted to read it). I had to research Faulkner for my intermediate fiction class. At that time, I could not locate anything about his writing process. I was informed that he never really liked talking about the process. However, I discovered a writing quote that was interesting. ( Faulkner–I think the writer, as I’ve said before, is completely amoral. He takes whatever he needs, wherever he needs, and he does that openly and honestly because he himself hopes that what he does will be good enough so that after him people will take from him, and they are welcome to take from him, as he feels that he would be welcome by the best of his predecessors to take what they had done.) The last quote was John Steinbeck. (The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.) There are so many quotes from a lot of writers. I’m sure that all of in the writing practice is not now, but one day will great quotes as well. Thanks, KEN
I am going to go with one from Dave Barry: “Always remember that if editors were so damned smart, they would know how to dress.” What a mistake to think I was no good at writing because of all the rejection letters I received. I gave it up. No more spending hours writing and rewriting. Sending off and hoping. I dedicated my time to other things with more immediate gratification, cooking, running, movies and of course, reading. hey all feed my fancy imagination. During quiet moments, I could see the faces and hear the voices, out in the distance calling me. I opened the door and they came in. What choice did I have then? I got the bottle of wine and slowly sipped as I listened to their stories. Sometimes they lied, sometimes they cried. I simply listened. I’ll write your story as best I can, I promised.
I like this one by Gorky , ‘One must write for children as one writes for adults, if not better.’ Though some of it is lost in translation.
The years are passing, and presently nobody will know what you and I know. That’s a reason for writing, to share our thoughts and imagination.
As for quotes, I am greatly inspired by Vladimir Nabokov. His books are loaded with great words, even those translated from the original Russian. One I can share: Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished Masterpiece.
Here is something clever and funny that Nabokov wrote around 1923: Heaven will be boring as smoking is forbidden, but the angels smoke in secret. When the archangel is looking, they flick the cigarettes away—that’s what falling stars are–