Rachel Aaron Quotes

Sometimes the price of doing the right thing is higher than we realize when we do it.

Don't tell me the Pigeon Whisperer dragged you into one of his stupid schemes.

So, I started keeping records. Every day I sat down to write, I would note the time I started, the time I stopped, how many words I wrote, and where I was writing on a spreadsheet

What we did and who we were are just dregs compared to who we are now and how we act when the sword is coming down.

I am a mage," she replied with every ounce of haughtiness three years in a competitive doctoral program had taught her. "We bend the rules of the universe on a daily basis. Presumptuousness is the base line for entry.

Every writing session after this realization, I dedicated five minutes (sometimes more, never less) and wrote out a quick description of what I was going to write that day.

Strength that comes easy is not strength at all.

The point I'm trying to make is that by recording my progress every day, I had the data I needed to start optimizing my daily writing.

Now, instead of treating bad writing days as random, unavoidable disasters to be weathered, like thunderstorms, I started treating them as red flags.

Specifically, I ask that my scenes do three things: Advance the story Reveal new information Pull the reader forward

Storytelling is a business of unique snowflakes. Every writer is different; every book is different; every reader is different. This is why it's so hard to give writing advice, because what works for me might be poison to someone else. But if I could make one absolute assertion, it would be this: If you are not enjoying your writing, you're doing it wrong. A book is not a battle, nor is it a conquest. A book is a story, and telling it should be an enjoyable exercise. So the next time you don't want to write, don't waste time beating yourself up. Instead, stop and ask yourself why. Why do you not want to do this fundamentally enjoyable thing? What's really going on?

Help us, Juli-wan Kenobi, you're our only hope."
For a moment, that almost, almost made Julius feel like a hero. And then he remembered. "Doesn't Obi-Wan die in that movie?

First rule of thievery,' Eli said, grinning, 'only run if you're not coming back.' ( ... ) 'First rule of thievery, never use the same entrance twice.' Miranda rolled her eyes. 'How many 'first rules' of thievery do you have?' 'When one mistake can mean your head on a pike, every rule's a first rule,' Eli said cheerfully.

As soon as the cold became uncomfortable, Eli had opened his shirt and had a nice long chat with the burn on his chest. Karon was happy to help them stick it to the ice and wind spirits, and he cheerfully kept the air around Eli as warm and dry as a smokehouse.
"I only wish it didn't reek of sulfur," Josef said, pressing up the mountainside. "I'd almost rather deal with the cold."
"Well, don't let me stop you," Eli huffed, though even he looked a little green. "Who am I to stand between a man and his frostbite?

The days when I broke 10k were the days when I was writing scenes I'd been dying to write since I planned the book.

For example, I keep all my actual writing in the Manuscript section divided by chapter, and then, in the research section, I have folders for Setting, Characters, and Plot with a separate area for my cuts file (where I put big blocks of text that I've cut out of the story but can't bring myself to delete yet) and my writing worksheet, which is the table I use to keep track of my word counts.

Why are you still complaining?" Miranda said. "It didn't help yesterday; it didn't help two weeks ago. What makes you think it'll help now?

I though the Black Reach lived in China."
"That doesn't mean anything," Bob said with a shrug. "The Black Reach doesn't have to be in the same hemisphere to meddle in you affairs. He didn't get his name for having unusually long arms, you know.

Well, he's not really my friend," Julius admitted. "I don't even know his real name, actually, but I was his healer in the game, and the bond between healer and tank runs deep.

We have a very busy schedule of cryptic proclamations and appearing where we're least expected to get back to.

You don't make humanity stronger by making everyone else weak. That's not power. That's just shooting everyone in the foot because you happen to be better at limping than the other guys.

Even if you're not selling your stories yet, your writing time is precious, often gained at the expense of other worthwhile activities. Don't waste it on a book you don't love.

That said, some of my best scenes and most dramatic scenes have actually been the ones I've combined to get my word count down.

Why are mortals always so eager to declare things impossible, anyway? It's not like things do or don't exist just because you say so.

Don't try to nice your way out of this. It's insulting.

You know," he said softly, "there's a fine line between being determined and being an idiot.

Once I shifted my thinking, though, I stopped roughing myself up and started asking Why? Why don't you want to write? What's wrong? And while the answers were never pleasant (because really, it's no fun to realize you messed up and now you have to rewrite a scene, or a chapter, or half a book), they were progress, and they were necessary. They were also extremely good for me, because once I got my story back on the right track, my bad writing days vanished, my daily word counts shot up, the quality of my writing improved, and life in general got a whole lot better.

How did you get in here?' ( ... ) 'How I got here isn't important, because I could do it twenty times again, each time a different way.

If I had scenes that were so boring I didn't want to write them, then there was no way anyone would want to read them. This was my novel, after all. If I didn't love it, no one would.

Conrad took hold of both his shoulders and set Julius bodily against the wall and ordered, "Stay." "I'm not a dog," Julius muttered, earning himself another deadly glare. "Right," he amended, dropping his eyes. "Staying.

Their anger just knocked us all down from halfway across the world," Bob reminded him. "I don't think running a few more feet is going to do us any good.