Writing Well Quotes

Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well. ~ William Zinsser

There is a great quote from a female writer. She said, 'If you don't break out in a sweat of fear when you write, you are not writing well enough. I tend to agree. I think my best pictures come when I push myself. ~ Sally Mann

The writer, his eye on the finish line, never gave enough thought to how to run the race. ~ William Zinsser

When I'm writing well, I feel happy. And when I go too long without writing, I begin to implode. ~ Mohsin Hamid

The final advantage is the same that applies in every other competitive venture. If you would like to write better than everyone else, you have to want to write better than everyone else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft. And you must be willing to defend what you've written against the various middlemen--editors, agents, and publishers--whose sights may be different from yours, whose standards are not as high. Too many writers are browbeaten into settling for less than their best. ~ William Zinsser

Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well. ~ Andre Breton

One of the strangest things about writing well is that it requires two different zones in the brain
rigor and recklessness
simultaneously. ~ Carole Maso

Writing well isn't just a question of winsome expression, but of having found something big and true to say and having found the right words to say it in, of having seen something large and having found the right words to say it small, small enough to enter an individual mind so that the strong ideas of what the words are saying sound like sweet reason. ~ Adam Gopnik

All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem. ~ William Zinsser

I know well enough that very few people who are supposedly interested in writing are interested in writing well. They are interested in publishing something, and if possible in making a "killing." They are interested in being a writer not in writing ... If this is what you are interested in, I am not going to be much use to you. ~ Flannery O'Connor

The narrative songs were well-written, like an article in The New Yorker. They're nice and pat. They're more like I'm just showing I can do that when I write a song like that. It's not my true calling. ~ Stephen Malkmus

Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost. ~ William Zinsser

I've always had standards about writing well. There is art in this business. There is potentially great art. ~ Gay Talese

Writing well means never having to say, I guess you had to be there. ~ Jef Mallett

But apart from these lazinesses of logic, what makes the story so tired is the failure of the writer to reach for anything but the nearest cliche'. "Shouldered his way," "only to be met," "crashing into his face," "waging a lonely war," "corruption that is rife," "sending shock waves," "New York's finest," - these dreary phrases constitute writing at its most banal. We know just what to expect. No surprise awaits us in the form of an unusual word, an oblique look. We are in the hands of a hack, and we know it right away, We stop reading. ~ William Zinsser

When I'm really entrenched in my writing, I seem to go through mini-writer's block cycles that usually last a week or so. They make me moody. My husband has a routine to help me get through the blocks. He forces me to take a day off, and he insists on my relaxing and taking in other forms of art to recharge my creativity. It actually works really well, but whenever I'm that into my work, I won't take a day off willingly.

I do have a system for when I have a novel idea. I like to research a whole lot first and take notes by hand, and then I outline and figure out the plot based on the history and research. Next, I write everything I can as quickly as I can without worrying about grammar or even writing well. Then, I go back and read through and start fixing things. It's kind of like a process to create the framework then I can go back in and make other layers shine.

Making the rest of the layers, really known as the editing process, is where things get crazy. I don't have a system for it because it's kind of a journey of discovery. I'll know things are wrong, but I won't always know how to fix them. When I discover the solution, it might take the story to a place I never would have guessed.

That happened a lot for A White Room. In the beginning I only had the idea for the first half of the story and just the story of Emeline – none of the subplots or stories of the other characters were there yet. Not even John's story. It was just Emeline u ~ Stephanie Carroll

If the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference of the total. ~ A.J. Liebling

Sound judgment is the ground of writing well. ~ Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl Of Roscommon

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly. ~ Quintilian

[On book promotion:] The reward for writing well appears to be not to be able to do it for a long time. ~ Rosellen Brown

Good writing is good writing, whatever form it takes and whatever we call it. ~ William Zinsser

But on the question of who you're writing for, don't be eager to please. ~ William Zinsser

Writing well is the best revenge. ~ Dorothy Parker

Let's say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

...being "rather unique" is no more possible than being rather pregnant. ~ William Zinsser

From writing rapidly it does not result that one writes well, but from writing well it results that one writes rapidly. ~ Quintilian

Everything can be going well, but if I'm not writing, I'm not happy. When I'm writing well, I'm like a different person. ~ Aaron Sorkin

Writing is easy. Writing well is hard work. ~ Amy Joy

Woolf drew on her memories of her holidays in Cornwall for To the Lighthouse, which was conceived in part as an elegy on her parents. Her father was a vigorous walker and an Alpinist of some renown, a member of the Alpine Club and editor of the Alpine Journal from 1868 to 1872; he was the first person to climb the Schreckhorn in the Alps and he wrote on Alpine pleasures in The Playground of Europe (1871). By the time he married Julia Duckworth in 1878, however, a more sedentary Leslie Stephen was the established editor of the Cornhill Magazine, from which he later resigned to take up the editorship of the Dictionary of National Biography in 1882, the year of Woolf 's birth. Stephen laboured on this monumental Victorian enterprise until 1990, editing single-handed the first twenty-six volumes and writing well over 300 biographical entries. He also published numerous volumes of criticism, the most important of which were on eighteenth-century thought and literature. ~ Jane Goldman

I'm often dismayed by the sludge I see appearing on my screen if I approach writing as a task--the day's work--and not with some enjoyment. ~ William Zinsser

I could give you absolutely sterling advice on how to avoid writing, how when you run out of things to do other than going to your desk and writing, when every closet is reorganized and you've called your oldest living relative twice in one day to see what she's up to and there isn't an unanswered e-mail left on your computer or you simply can't bear to answer another one and there is no dignity, not a drop left, in any further evasion of the task at hand, namely writing, well, you can always ask your dentist for a root canal or have an accident in the bathtub instead. ~ Tony Kushner

Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together. ~ Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte De Buffon

It's easy to write something average or even something good. But writing well is quite challenging. ~ Nicholas Sparks

I love it, I hate it, it's ecstasy when I'm writing well, it's despair when I'm not. I wouldn't wish this life on anyone, nor would I, could I, ever give it up. ~ Jillian Medoff

And when I'm writing well and when I'm inside the feeling, then I can do fairly complicated things with some fluency. ~ Edward Hirsch

I don't believe in writer's block, writing well is very easy; it's writing horribly, the horrible work necessary to do to get to writing well, that is so difficult one may just not be willing to do it. ~ Dean Young

There's no such thing as a writer's block. If you're having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity. ~ Natalie Goldberg

Writing well is more than mechanics, but it is not less. ~ Douglas Wilson

I would love to see writing taught online because at university like Yale, there are not enough teachers who are able to teach writing well, or in some cases, there are none. ~ David Gelernter

My prescription for writer's block is to face the fact that there is no such thing ... Writing well is difficult, but one can always write something. And then, with a lot of work, make it better. It's a question of having enough will and ambition, not of hoping to evade this mysterious hysteria people are always talking about. ~ Thomas Mallon

I write every day. Even if I'm not writing well, I write through it. I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank one. ~ Nora Roberts

[T]he only means I have to stop ignorant snobs from behaving towards genre fiction with snobbish ignorance is to not reinforce their ignorance and snobbery by lying and saying that when I write SF it isn't SF, but to tell them more or less patiently for forty or fifty years that they are wrong to exclude SF and fantasy from literature, and proving my arguments by writing well. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

You can't teach people to write well. Writing well is something God lets you do or declines to let you do. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Writing is such a lonely work that I try to keep myself cheered up. ~ William Zinsser

Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away. ~ William Zinsser

I don't read a lot of inspirational books for life. But for writing, I think the two best books are The War of Art and William Zinsser's On Writing Well. I read a lot of classics; ~ Donald Miller

You know, the immortality of the soul, free will and all that
it's all very amusing to talk about up to the age of twenty-two, but not after that. Then one ought to be giving one's mind to having fun without catching the pox, arranging one's life as comfortably as possible, having a few decent drawings on the wall, and above all writing well. That's the important thing: well-made sentences ... and then a few metaphors. Yes, a few metaphors. They embellish a man's existence. ~ Theophile Gautier

Amazing how the most obvious things escape your notice. Maybe the truth is exactly the things you don't notice. Maybe the aim to see and tell the truth is inherently futile, a contradiction in terms, and it's exactly those things about oneself and the world that are invisible because they are woven into one's fabric that are the truth. Just like a person can't see his own eyes. You search and search and search, and the truth, by definition, is exactly that which you don't find. You don't see the truth, you are the truth. "Habits of attention are reflexes of the complete character of an individual." And how could you notice your own habits of attention? By writing. Well, at their most profound level? It doesn't make any difference. That is the point. It's like Zen. The truth is not straining for the truth, the truth is in effortlessness. The truth is in being, not trying. Aw hell, that doesn't leave much too chew on. ~ Richard Hell

I've probably put my 10,000 hours into writing, but I believe writing well is also greatly influenced by certain intangibles like mood and inspiration. ~ Bill Loguidice

I also tell them that sometimes when my writer friends are working, they feel better and more alive than they do at any other time. And sometimes when they are writing well, they feel that they are living up to something. It is as if the right words, the true words, are already inside them, and they just want to help them get out. ~ Anne Lamott

There is no pleasure in the world like writing well and going fast. It's like nothing else. It's like a love affair, it goes on and on, and doesn't end in marriage. It's all courtship. ~ Tennessee Williams

Don't annoy your readers by over-explaining--by telling them something they already know or can figure out. Try not to use words like "surprisingly," "predictably" and "of course," which put a value on a fact before the reader encounters the fact. Trust your material. ~ William Zinsser

Writers say two things that strike me as nonsense. One is that you must follow an absolute schedule everyday. If you're not writing well, why continue it? I just don't think this grinding away is useful. ~ Edmund White

There's something about writing that demands a leave-taking, an abandonment of the world, paradoxically, in order to see it clearly. This retreat has to be accomplished without severing the vital connection to the world, and to people, that feeds the imagination. It's a difficult balance. And here is where these ruminations about writing touch on morality. The same constraints to writing well are also constraints to living fully. Not to be a slave to fashion or commerce, not to succumb to arid self-censorship, not to bow to popular opinion - what is all that but a description of the educated, enlightened life? ~ Jeffrey Eugenides

Of writing well, be sure, the secret lies
In wisdom :therefore study to be wise. ~ Horace

I do labor - it's part of the process. Writing is no easier today than it was in the beginning: writing well is very hard to do. Always. ~ Nicholas Sparks

The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down. ~ A.J. Liebling

If I'm not writing well, I'm not happy. If I'm not spending enough time with my family, I'm not happy. If I'm not connecting to friends or if I don't work out enough ... You get the point. Everything has to be balanced. Nothing should be an extreme. ~ Harlan Coben

I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story. ~ Eric Brown

Learn to enjoy this tidying process. I don't like to write; I like to have written. But I love to rewrite. I especially like to cut: to press the DELETE key and see an unnecessary word or phrase or sentence vanish into the electricity. I like to replace a humdrum word with one that has more precision or color. I like to strengthen the transition between one sentence and another. I like to rephrase a drab sentence to give it a more pleasing rhythm or a more graceful musical line. With every small refinement I feel that I'm coming nearer to where I would like to arrive, and when I finally get there I know it was the rewriting, not the writing, that wont the game. ~ William Zinsser

Muses are fickle, and many a writer, peering into the voice, has escaped paralysis by ascribing the creative responsibility to a talisman: a lucky charm, a brand of paper, but most often a writing instrument. Am I writing well? Thank my pen. Am I writing badly? Don't blame me blame my pen. By such displacements does the fearful imagination defend itself. ~ Anne Fadiman

All the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are able to read English writing well. ~ Alfred The Great

The more a man writes, the more he can write. ~ William Hazlitt

Writers don't suffer from insanity, they depend upon it! ~ Avijeet Das

You may follow the footsteps
The whole day will pass
With you going around in circles
Yet not reaching anywhere at last! ~ Avijeet Das

In Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield mentions reading books that make him wish he could be friends with the author and be able to call him on the phone and so forth. I would consider a literary work that made someone feel this way a success. Furthermore, it's the only kind of success in literature that means anything to me. ~ Thomas Ligotti

Once the grammar has been learned, writing is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say. ~ Beryl Bainbridge

As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward. ~ Augusten Burroughs

Working on 'Drive', a lot of fun. This is Tim Minear whom I've worked with before on 'Firefly' of course. He called me up and said, 'I've got a part for you that you will love,' and I love Tim's writing. I love his stories. I love his characters, his dialogue. He has a knack for reveals and he has a knack for moments. ~ Nathan Fillion

The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine. ~ Robert Bresson

My fear is you have to be careful as a writer to not get caught up in social media and blogging, because it can start to feed into your writing time. When you are writing a book, it's such a long journey where the payoff is way at the end, sometimes years away. The payoff of the blog post is today. You get the reinforcement, comments or "likes" immediately. It's appealing. You have to be patient with the book. ~ Matt De La Pena

It was easy enough to write a sentence, but if you were going to create a work of art, the way Melville had, each sentence needed to fit perfectly with the one that preceded it, and the unwritten one that would follow. And each of these sentences needed to square with the ones on either side, so that three became five and five became seven, seven became nine, and whichever sentence he was writing became the slender fulcrum on which the the whole precarious edifice depended. That sentence could contain anything, anything, and so it promised the kind of absolute freedom that, to Affenlight's mind, belonged to the artist and the artist alone. ~ Chad Harbach

And there was no entertainment for them at night. They were too poor to own a television set. But they seemed content. Truman with his sculpting and building the recreation center. Lynne writing poems occasionally, reading them to her friends, then tearing them up. ~ Alice Walker

To me, there's no point in writing merely to entertain. ~ Bebe Moore Campbell

I love to write and I assure you I write regularly ... But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it. ~ J.D. Salinger

Charlie Marlowe never wrote horror, but somehow horror was writing Charlie Marlowe. ~ Ruta Sepetys

there are words inside me that don't want to hide anymore.

Perfect or not, they don't want to be safe for much longer.

They want to be free. ~ Gayendra Abeywardane

I finish a lot of lyrics while I'm in the water and it's always pretty constructive for me to get out in the water. I'm not actually writing the words down, but I have time to think about words, and doing a lot of surfing usually gives me a little space and peace of mind to finish things up. ~ Jack Johnson

I like to write when I feel spiteful. It is like having a good sneeze.
(Letter to Cynthia Asquith, November 1913) ~ D.H. Lawrence

There's a little trick called the Rule of Three: if you use any three of the five senses, it will make the scene immediately three-dimensional. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Your flesh is not a reflection of your soul. So when you look in the mirror, remember that your light outshines your flaws. ~ D. Antoinette Foy

People assume that science is a very cold sort of profession, whereas writing novels is a warm and fuzzy intuitive thing. But in fact, they are not at all different. ~ Diana Gabaldon

The finder of his theme will be at no loss for words. ~ J.V. Cunningham

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity. ~ Hermann Hesse

I feel I have to live a little longer before I write a sequel to my auto biography which covers my experiences up until October 1991. ~ Holly Johnson

In good writing, the contemplative and the exciting happen at the same time. ~ Dave Morris

My writing habits are pretty static. I get up every morning between 6 and 7 am, grab a cup of coffee, say a few prayers, and go downstairs to my office and start writing. ~ Mitch Albom

Someone Should Write Me a Love Poem but I'm Stuck Doing It Myself ~ Daphne Gottlieb

Being on 'Nashville' and working with some incredible people like T-Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller - so many wonderful, incredible musicians that I've been blessed to play with and observe - that has continued to shape the process of arranging music, writing music. ~ Jonathan Jackson

I have a pesky little critic in the back of my mind. He's a permanent fixture and passes judgment on everything I write.
In order to placate him, especially when I'm endeavoring to write anything as ambitious as a novel, I have to constantly mutter, 'I'm not writing a masterpiece, I'm not writing a masterpiece.'
This mantra lulls him into a kind of stupor so that he pays no attention to what I'm doing, because after all, I'm not claiming it's any good. Slowly, and secretly, one page at a time, I write my story.
I know I've succeeded when he grudgingly admits, 'That's pretty good.' And if I'm lucky, every once in a while, I blow him away. ~ Rukhsana Khan

Behold the onset of my flinty tone. Along with so much else, a soft-tissue sarcoma can apparently drain the exultation from one's prose. ~ Jonathan Lethem

Most of the time I was in the Northeast, I lived in the country, and I think that helped me to discover my material for writing. ~ Bobbie Ann Mason

Writing poetry is a passion, ignited by thoughts, fueled by ink. A way to travel through another mind, where souvenirs of tears are tucked away inside your soul. Or leave you with smiles for miles, depending on which route you go. ~ Renee Dixon

I've had lots of people saying very nice things about the work. But I genuinely feel in the course of a writing career you're going to have people say very nice things and some not-so-nice things, and if at all possible you should try to ignore both. ~ Kevin Barry

I had been writing poems and stories since I learned to make letters. I had placed poems in a hardcover anthology at the age of 6. And I knew more big words than anyone else in the 10th grade. ~ Jeff Lindsay

I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual ~ Virginia Woolf

Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible ~ Barack Obama

I don't think there's any great mystery to writing female characters, so long as you talk to them. If you lived in a monastery and never met any women, maybe it would be difficult. ~ Ken Follett

You can't undo the past, but you can remedy it by creating a better future. ~ A.D. Posey

For me they go hand in hand. When I travel it makes me want to write, when I read it makes me want to travel. ~ William Dalrymple