#writing quote

[novlr]

“The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.” ― Douglas Adams

[ecrivaine-musings]

the relationship between a writer and their WIPs can be so…(transmutive, agonizing, soul shattering, haunting,)…personal…

[whump-in-the-closet]

“what do I have left? Nothing. I have nothing!”

Their friend leaned in, blood trickling down their high cheekbones and shadows under their eyes.

“You have rage.” They cupped Whumpee’s face with a hand stained with dirt, chalky and coarse against their skin. Forehead to forehead, they whispered, “Use it.”

[writingwithfolklore]

"We're all imposters and we all don't know what to do except write the next sentence." - Taffy Brodesser-Akner

[asinnersalibius]

Absent Gods

I've been praying to a God I don't believe in.

I don't know why, or when, but I have. Every now and again I find myself stopping in coffee shop windows and quiet waiting rooms; praying.

There are no words exchanged, none from me, and none from them, but we speak to a degree, silently. It's not peace, certainly not, but it is a form of clarity. Quiet and surrendering.

I don't know whose God I've found in the barren wastelands of my distrust, in the guarded walls of my lust, but I've found a God I don't believe in; and that's granted me enough.

We don't talk every day, we barely talk at all, but I often find myself talking, regardless of the silence. It's the only silence that never rang in my ears, made my heartbeat seem so loud, so distant.

It feels right, at times, like how a good pen feels or a nice soft sweater not too hot for summer. For that, I haven't tried to figure out who this God is, perhaps by intention.

It may be odd, but I know, whenever I need to, whenever I can, there's someone, something out in the world, or not, listening, acknowledging, and that's enough to me.

I've been praying to a God I don't believe in, and for now, that's fine.

[wordshaveteeth]

[Vonnegut] could play around so much because he had the mechanics and architecture of language and writing firmly under his belt. Freedom to fool around comes with mastery.

- Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell, Pity The Reader: On Writing With Style

[fromthechaoticmind]

“That was a lot of work to stroke your ego. Narcissus only needed a mirror, babe.”

[lannegarrett]

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

– Ernest Hemingway

[nanowrimo]

Are you writing this month, Wrimo? Check out our “I wrote a novel… now what?” resources over on the NaNoWriMo website for tips on choosing your next writing adventure: whether that’s finishing a story you’ve been working on for a while, editing and revising, pursuing publishing... or something completely different! For some extra inspiration, author Sarah Gailey’s Pep Talk from this past November reminds you to find joy in the reasons you write. Read the full Pep Talk here!

Image description: A blue background with illustrated red flowers, with text that reads: “The worst part of not writing is that writing always lingers at the edges of it. There’s a prickle on the back of my neck when I’m not writing, an unanswered-message feeling. Because the story is waiting.” —Sarah Gailey”

[noxinkwell]

“Novels are forged in passion, demand fidelity and commitment, often drive you to boredom or rage, sleep with you at night. They are the long haul. They are marriage. Stories, on the other hand, you can lose yourself in for a few weeks and then wrap up, or grow tired of and abandon and (maybe) return to later. They can cuddle you sweetly, or make you get on your knees and beg.” — David Leavitt

[the-mightiest-pen]

"Oi, I need some full moon harvested jasmin seeds."

"Yeah, sure, just let me pull some out of my ass."

"Odd place to keep em, but that's between you and your gods."

[novlr]

“Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.” — Kurt Vonnegut

[ecrivaine-musings]

Creation as an act, in whatever form you chose, is inherently uncomfortable. Finding a way to reach in and pull out coherent fragments of yourself, and then bring them together to be larger than the sum of their parts is a brutal alchemy. One that is both a pain and a pleasure, addictive in its self intoxication.  

paperbackstacks, 'my dreams would swallow me if I let them'

[coconut-oyl]

"People spoke of being completed by love, but Claude already felt complete. She was complete on girl-days, and he was complete on boy-days, and they were complete on the in-between days. Claude's life was full enough without True Love.

Yet that was a problem for everyone else."

- Early to Rise (No Man of Woman Born) by Ana Mardoll.

[scriptwriters-network]

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

— Ernest Hemingway

[asinnersalibius]

Muse

I don't write because I have to or even want to. I write because there's a lot going on in my head and I don't know how to talk to people. I'm going to write a book one day and everyone who ever knew me will finally understand me.

I am a broken record only surviving by the grace of its contradictions.

I hope to pour myself into my writing, I hope to make myself my words. I hope that one far down the line I am not recognized like Shakespeare, and J.K. Rowling, but like Mitch Albom and Althea Davis. I hope my writing lights a fire in somebody's heart and that make it everything they hold dear to them.

Sure, I get writer's block and it's frustrating, but it also means my mind is in a quiet place, even if I don't want to be. Despite all the chaos it found serenity and I'm proud of it for that. My brain is such a chaotic place. It scary and scared as most things are, fear making itself tangible in that funny kind of way.

At the end of the day, I write because I can. I write everything I know about as if tomorrow none of it will exist. It's scary and it's tragic but gods is it all I have. So let it be messy, let it be wrong, let it be too long for the simplicity of being it all, let it be. I may regret a lot of things in life, don't let my words be one of them. Don't let the one thing that brought me peace, torment me.

Please