Best 30386 quotes in «writing quotes» category

Don’t break the rules when you haven’t fully figured them out yet.

Don't compare the size of your roof with the size of the sky.

Don’t break a writer’s heart and think ink won’t spill.

Don't bury personal obsessions. Capitalize on them. ``The connection between personal obsession and the work you do is the most important thing.'' -- Be yourself. ``Singularity is what you need.'' -- Avoid self-censorship: ``We are very self-critical in a way that can be very destructive. In our culture there are voices in our head which have taught us to say, `Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you.' Don't ever think about anybody peering over your shoulder.'' -- Don't be afraid to show off, even if you think, ``I'm very close to making a complete fool of myself.'' -- Don't be afraid to entertain. ``I want to entertain. I don't want to lose people. I feel responsible as I write to give people the best time I can.'' -- ``Love your failures'' instead of beating yourself up over them. -- ``Learn to love the process'' of writing. -- Just do it. Barker likes something director Stanley Kubrick said: ``If you want to make a film, pick up a camera.

Don't dare try to be heroes.

Don’t dash off a six-thousand-word story before breakfast. Don’t write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will none the less get something that looks remarkably like it. Set yourself a “stint,” [London wrote 1,000 words nearly every day of his adult life] and see that you do that “stint” each day; you will have more words to your credit at the end of the year. Study the tricks of the writers who have arrived. They have mastered the tools with which you are cutting your fingers. They are doing things, and their work bears the internal evidence of how it is done. Don’t wait for some good Samaritan to tell you, but dig it out for yourself. See that your pores are open and your digestion is good. That is, I am confident, the most important rule of all. Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory. And work. Spell it in capital letters. WORK. WORK all the time. Find out about this earth, this universe; this force and matter, and the spirit that glimmers up through force and matter from the maggot to Godhead. And by all this I mean WORK for a philosophy of life. It does not hurt how wrong your philosophy of life may be, so long as you have one and have it well. The three great things are: GOOD HEALTH; WORK; and a PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. I may add, nay, must add, a fourth—SINCERITY. Without this, the other three are without avail; with it you may cleave to greatness and sit among the giants." [Getting Into Print (The Editor magazine, March 1903)]

Don’t ever undermine writers for life is much about writing and memories are well kept through writing

Don’t ever let yourself surrender to writer’s block.

Don't exercise your freedom of speech until you have exercised your freedom of thought.

Don't fool yourself. Talking about writing is not the same as actually doing it.

Don't give in to doubt. Never be discouraged if your first draft isn't what you thought it would be. Given skill and a story that compels you, muster your determination and make what's on the page closer to what you have in your mind. The chances are that you'll never make them identical. That's one reason I'm still hitting the keyboard. Obsessed by the secrets of my past, I try to put metaphorical versions of them on the page, but each time, no matter how honest and hard my effort, what's in my mind hasn't been fully expressed, compelling me to keep trying. To paraphrase a passage from John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse," I'll die telling stories to myself in the dark. But there's never enough time. There was never enough time.

Don’t give people what they want, give them what they need.

Don't forget Who you are writing for. It's easy to get discouraged when people don't like your writing, but that's just it. They're people. You don't want to serve people, you want to serve God. Write for Him, and ignore what other people say. It just doesn't matter.

Don't fuckin' sleep on yourself

Don't give up! Keep trying harder. Things will start happening for the better. I never considered myself as a good writer. I was writing but never finding depth in my writing. It took me time. I am now going deeper into human emotions and feelings! My writing is finding depth!

Don’t go overboard in avoiding “said.” Basically, “said” is the default for dialogue, and a good thing, too; it’s an invisible word that doesn’t draw attention to itself.

Don't judge it. Just write it. Don't judge it. It's not for you to judge it. Interview in Esquire Magazine 10/10

Don’t interrupt when your characters take a flight of their own.

Don't imagine that the art of poetry is any simpler than the art of music, or that you can please the expert before you have spent at least as much effort on the art of verse as the average piano teacher spends on the art of music. Be influenced by as many great artists as you can, but have the decency either to acknowledge the debt outright, or try to conceal it. Don't allow "influence" to mean merely that you mop up the particular decorative vocabulary of some one or two poets who you happen to admire.

Don’t just hit a home run. Knock it out of the park.

Don't just read to read. Read to understand.

Don't just write a strong female protagonist. Be one.

Don't keep your Muse locked up in the closet. Set them free to dance across the page and what they create will be a masterpiece.

Don't keep coloring in their lines waiting for them to sign on the dotted... for you will become... ...overdrawn.

Don’t just raise the bar… Raise the roof.

Don’t just see brilliance… Feel it.

Don't let baby slip too quickly from your fingers. Hang on tight until she's ready to go. And then hang on a little longer.

Don’t let characters talk pointlessly—they only talk if there’s something to say.

Don't let the covers fool you. Books, like lives, are wiggling, evolving, living things. They're not bound by pages or authors or schools of thought. They're not born when they're printed; in fact, they only start to live once they're read. So first of all, we thank you, reader. You dignify this work we do, and we're sincerely grateful for your time and attention.

Don’t let the poison of the past spoil a fruitful future.

Don’t let the world tell you who you are. You get up and you tell the world who you are.

‏Don’t live with a lover or roommate who doesn’t respect your work.

Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in ... the edit." [Ten rules for writing fiction (part two), The Guardian, 20 February 2010]

Don’t look. See. Don’t think. Feel. Don’t hear. Listen. Pay attention Miracles really do happen every day

Don't mention your move before you make a move.

Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . . Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too.

Don’t seek to emulate other writers. Don’t pay heed to how others say your tales should be written. And don’t ever change your writing on account of anything or anyone. Your stories are your own, so write them your way.

Don't think about the writing process too much. Just do one thing: tell the motherfucking story.

Don't think because you can't affect something at a great level that God can't use you in a great way. David didn't even train one day with the armies but He won the war. He didn't even have a weapon but he killed a giant.

Don't think twice; once is enough. If you have to think again, it will always be a second thought.

Don't think of what you have to do, don't consider how to carry it out!" he exclaimed. "The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise.

Don’t try to present your art by making other people read or hear or see or touch it; make them feel it. Wear your art like your heart on your sleeve and keep it alive by making people feel a little better. Feel a little lighter. Create art in order for yourself to become yourself and let your very existence be your song, your poem, your story. Let your very identity be your book. Let the way people say your name sound like the sweetest melody.

Don't write when you're angry and under deadline, with time to test it only on friends who know what you mean, not on strangers who don't.

Don’t you ever get scared?” I ask. “Of what?” She says. “Of not being good enough.” “You mean at writing?” L’il asks. I nod. “What if I’m the only one who thinks I can do it and no one else does? What if I’m fooling myself-“ “Oh, Carrie.” She smiles. “Don’t you know that every writer feels that way? Fear is part of the job.

Don't worry about offending people. Any time you write something thought provoking, some idiots will complain, because they hate it when you make them think.

Don’t write like your mentors

Don’t wish the world demanded less of you. Rise up and exceed its standards.

Don’t we all look up at the same stars?

Doubt is the only reliable source of creativity.

Do what you love. Use the talents you were given. When you begin your journey as a writer, you’ll be told that you can’t, that you won’t, that you mustn’t. But look closely at the lives of those who are discouraging you and ask yourself if this is someone you should be taking advice from.