Keeping Motivated
Keeping motivated is hard … Whether you are stuck on the last chapter of your novel, or you’re just sitting down to write the first, a little motivation can go a long way.
If you need a little extra help in staying motivated, this is just the article for you. Below are some of the best quotes from your fellow writers to inspire you to set aside self-doubt and just keep writing.
1) Anne Lamott
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”
MORE: 7 Motivational Quotes From Shonda Rhimes
2) Mary Lee Settle
“I start with a question. Then try to answer it.”
3) Jane Yolen
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”
4) F. Scott Fitzgerald
“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”
5) Ray Bradbury
“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”
6) William H. Gass
“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”
7) W.H. Auden
“Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought to always aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.”
8) Lisa See
“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.”
9) Terry Pratchett
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
10) Stephen King
“Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s.”
MORE: Stephen King’s Top 10 Writing Rules
11) Thomas Jefferson
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
12) Robert Louis Stevenson
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”
13) Jodi Picoult
“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
14) Louis L’Armour
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
15) Charles Baudelaire
“Always be a poet, even in prose.”
16) Robert Frost
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
17) Frank Herbert
“There is no real ending. It is just the place where you stop the story.”
18) Ray Bradbury
“First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him.”
19) Anton Chekhov
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me a glint of light on broken glass.”
20) Sylvia Plath
“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.”
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21) Jim Thompson
“There is only one plot – things are not always what they seem.”
22) Stephen King
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”
23) Dan Poynter
“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.”
24) Orson Scott
“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
25) Maya Angelou
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
26) Wally Lamb
“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”
27) Richard Bach
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
28) Margaret Atwood
“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”
29) R.L. Stine
“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.”
30) Chinua Achebe
“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.”
MORE: 14 Proven Writing Tricks From Genius Writers
So, whatever you’re writing and whatever stage of the process you are in, take a minute to appreciate the wisdom of writers who made it. They managed to stay motivated and get where you want to be. There are countless more motivational quotes like these too, so you will never be short on inspiration.
Good Luck!
BIO: Michael Dehoyos is a health writer at Phd Kingdom and Academic Brits. He assists people with their lifestyle choices as well as sharing his knowledge by contributing to numerous sites and publications, the academic service, Origin Writings, amongst them.
