Me, yesterday, all day:

Me, today, all day:

Need. Major. Word. Count.

A few of my favorite quotes spread randomly around my office that I reread for inspiration and motivation:

Writing a novel is a very hard thing to do because it covers so long a space of time, and if you get discouraged it is not a bad sign, but a good one. If you think you are not doing so well, you are thinking the way real novelists do. I never knew one who did not feel greatly discouraged at times, and some get desperate, and I have always found that to be a good symptom. (Maxwell Perkins in a letter to Nancy Hale)

Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You only see as far as your headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way. (E.L. Doctrow)

It is important that a novel be approached with some urgency. Spend too long on it, or have great gaps in between writing sessions and the unity of the work tends to be lost. (Anothony Burgess)

Don’t market yourself. Editors and readers don’t know what they want until they see it. Scratch what itches. Write what you need to write, feed the hunger for meaning in your life. Play at the serious questions of life or death. (Donald M. Murray)

Happy writing!

Steph T.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 13th, 2005 at 10:13 am and is filed under Writing Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.