45 Motivational Quotes About Writing to Get You Inspired to Write Great Stories
45 Motivational Quotes About Writing to Keep You Inspired
Are you a weary writer in need of some inspiration? Motivational quotes about writing and the process of writing may just be what you need to keep you inspired and on fire to write great stories. Without further ado, here are some words of wisdom from some of the greatest authors from throughout time.
1. Just Start Writing
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow unless the faucet is turned on.” – Louis L’Amour
2. Desire to Write
“The desire to write grows with writing.” – Desiderius Erasmus
3. Perfection
“If I waited for perfection, I would not write a word.” – Margaret Atwood
4. Perspective
“Don’t forget – no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.” – Charles de Lint
5. Write. Then Write Again
“Write. Just do it. Then again. Then some more. And more. Do not wait for inspiration; if you do enough of it often enough, inspiration will eventually come.” ~Nancy Kress
6. The First Draft
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” ~Terry Pratchett
7. First Efforts
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” ~Anne Lamott
8. Doing Something Else
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” ~Gloria Steinem
9. Victory
“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.” – Ralph Waldom Emerson.
10. Difficulties
“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.” Winston Churchill
11. Storytellers
“To a story-teller a journey is a marvelous device. It provides a strong thread on which a multitude of things that he has in his mind may be strung to make a new thing, various, unpredictable, and yet coherent.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
12. Strength
“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters I am not. I write to explore all of the things I’m afraid of.” – Joss Whedon
13. Sit Down and Write
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it is done. It’s that easy and that hard.” Neil Gaiman
14. Get it Down
“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” – William Faulkner
15. The Job Never Started
“It’s the job never started takes longest to finish.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
16. You Start Our Writing Crap
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.” – Octavia E. Butler
17. Editing a Page
“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page” – Jodi Picoult
18. Inspriation
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London
19. Write a Book
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison
20. Sandcastles
“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” – Shannon Hale
21. Stop Writing to Me
“I get a lot of letters from people. They say, “I want to be a writer. What should I do?” I tell them to stop writing to me and get on with it.” – Ruth Rendell
22. Tell a Story
“Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.” – Anne McCaffrey
23. Descriptions
“Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s.” – Stephen King
24. Close the Door
“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” – Barbara Kingsolver
25. Emotions
“Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.” – Joseph Joubert
26. Imagination
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath
27. Finding an Audience
“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.” – Wally Lamb
28. Believe in Yourself
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale
29. Courage
“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” – Anne Frank
30. Forgotten
“Write what should not be forgotten.” – Isabel Allende
31. Thinking
“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” Isaac Asimov
32. Failing
“You only fail if you stop writing.” – Ray Bradbury
33. Forget about Being Heard
“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” – Allen Ginsberg
34. Be Courageous
“Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.” – Holley Gerth
35. Easy Writing
“Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.” – William Zinsser
36. A Writer is Someone
“A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.” – Susan Sontag
37. Ametuers
“A professional writer is an ametuer who didn’t quit.” – Richard Bach
38. Creativity
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou
39. Don’t Be a Waiter
“If you wait for inspiration to write, you are not a writer, you are a waiter.” – Dan Poynter
40. Writing Matters
“Write like it matters, and it will.” Libba Bray
41. Talking Uninterrupted
“Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.” – Jules Renard
42. Write to Be a Writer
“If you wish to be a writer, write.” – Epictetus
43. Fingertips
“Step into a scene and let it drip from your fingertips.” – MJ Bush
44. What Writing Reminds Us
“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that is a gift and a privilege, not a right.” – Ray Bradbury
45. The First Words
“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they will take you.” – Beatrix Potter
It is hard not to appreciate many of those wonderful bits of wisdom from experienced writers. The message that we can receive from all of them is that we have to just start writing, not worry about what other people will think and say, and most of all, never, never, give up!
