Best Fiction Writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 5

“Anecdotes don't make good stories. Generally I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.”

People Writing Stories Good Story Good Writing Good Writers Fiction Writing Writers And Writing Fiction Writers Writing Fiction Writing By Writers Anecdotes Story Writing Writing Stories Creativity And Writing Story Writers

Author:Alice Munro

“Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil-but there is no way around them.”

Ifs Way Writing Soul Form Devil Letters Invention Rejection Slips Fiction Writing Fiction Writers

Author:Isaac Asimov

“Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up.”

Writing Stuff Fiction Fiction Writing Writers And Writing Fiction Writers Screwed Up Writing By Writers Creativity And Writing

Author:Nancy Kress

“If science fiction is the mythology of modern technology, then its myth is tragic.”

Ifs Writing Fiction Technology Modern Science Fiction Myth Mythology Tragic Fiction Writing Fiction Writers Modern Technology

Book:Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

Source: Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.”

“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.”

Ifs Writing May Stories Hundred Favors Odds Fiction Writing Writers And Writing Fiction Writers Novel Writing Writing Fiction Writing By Writers Story Writing Writing Stories Creativity And Writing Story Writers Bad Writing

Author:Edgar Rice Burroughs

“Writing is turning one's worst moments into money.”

Writing Moments Worst Fiction Writing Writers And Writing Fiction Writers Writing Fiction Writing By Writers Creativity And Writing Worst Moments Writing Short Short Writing

Author:J. P. Donleavy

“If you start with a bang, you won't end with a whimper.”

Ifs Writing Ends Bangs Fiction Writing Fiction Writers

Author:T. S. Eliot

“The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.”

People Inspirational Writing Reason Truth Form Literature Interesting Fiction Study Greatness Telling The Truth Fiction Writing Humiliating

Author:Jim Rohn

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”

Life Writing Reality Truth Differences Fiction Humorous Definitions Witty Make Sense Creative Writing Fiction Writing Nothing Makes Sense Fiction And Reality

Author:Tom Clancy

“If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.”

“The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.”

Writing Reason Stories Home Left Simple Written Editors Shelves Closets Manuscripts Fiction Writing Fiction Writers Reading And Writing Writers Reading Writing And Reading Reading Writing Story Writers

Author:John Y. Campbell

“Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.”

Knows Needs Writing May Stories Emotion Keys Short Story Fiction Writing Fiction Writers Reading And Writing Beautiful Writing Story Writing Story Writers Writing Short Stories Short Writing

Author:F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict.”

Writing Conflict Dramatic Fiction Writing Fiction Writers Dramatic Writing

Author:James Frey

“The writer's genetic inheritance and her or his experiences shape the writer into a unique individual, and it is this uniqueness that is the writer's only stuff for sale.”

Writing Individual Stuff Shapes Unique Uniqueness Inheritance Fiction Writing Fiction Writers Unique Individuals

Author:James Gunn

“In a good play, everyone is in the right.”

Writing Play Fiction Writing Fiction Writers

Author:Christian Friedrich Hebbel

“Fantasy doesn't have to be fantastic. American writers in particular find this much harder to grasp. You need to have your feet on the ground as much as your head in the clouds. The cute dragon that sits on your shoulder also craps all down your back, but this makes it more interesting because it gives it an added dimension.”

“Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.”

Writing Inspiration Funny Fiction Stupid Dumb Fiction Writing I Was Stupid Stupidest Celebrity Dumbest Celebrity Dumb Celebrity

Author:Ivana Trump

“You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing- your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal.”

Writing Able Certain Lines Deals Fiction Amount Vanity Stakes Tricky Fiction Writing

Book:The David Foster Wallace Reader

Source: The David Foster Wallace Reader

“Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination.”

Writing Inspiration Percent Fiction Writing Elimination Brevity

Author:Louise Brooks

“If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.”

Ifs Inspirational Talent Persistence Rejection Persist Fiction Writing Drawers Measure Of Success Persistence Inspirational

Author:Isaac Asimov

“Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have to arouse your reader's desire to know what happens, to unravel the mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it, keep it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a time, as your story goes on. That's called suspense. It can bring desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good position to bring off a wonderful climax.”

“Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it.”

Writing Book Done Literature Accepting Written Including Hardest Hardest Thing Fiction Writing Fiction Writers Book Writing Rewriting

Author:Michael Crichton

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.”

“Writing is the hardest work in the world not involving heavy lifting.”

World Writing Heavy Hardest Lifting Involving Fiction Writing Writers And Writing Fiction Writers Writing By Writers Heavy Lifting

Author:Pete Hamill

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

“Fiction writing is a twenty-four-hou r-a-day occupation. You never leave your work behind. It is always with you, and to some extent, you are always thinking about it. You don't take your work home; your work never leaves home. It lives inside you. It resides and grows and comes alive in your mind.”

Thinking Writing Mind Home Grows Behinds Fiction Four Alive Twenties Occupation Fiction Writing Always Thinking Always With You

Author:Terry Brooks

“People love gossip because it's slightly removed from actuality. It's a very literary thing... You can hear a great story, and it turns out that it's largely not true. Fiction writing is like gossip. It's not malicious gossip, but it's gossip.”

People Writing Stories Turns Fiction Gossip Fiction Writing Actuality Malicious Malicious Gossip

Author:Lorrie Moore

“When I was in high school and college, my other real focus was, actually, fiction writing. So in college, I had done all these seminars with these various writers-in-residence.”

Writing Real Done School Fiction Focus College High School Various Fiction Writing Residence Seminars

Author:Lily Rabe

“For me, writing plays is far more an act of the mind than of the emotions. It's a very different kind of impulse than fiction writing.”

Writing Mind Kind Different Play Emotion Fiction Crafts Impulse Different Kinds Fiction Writing

Author:Jim Grimsley

“Contrary to all those times you've heard a writer confess at a reading that he writes fiction because he is a pathological liar, fiction writing is all about telling the truth.”

Writing Reading Fiction Heard Contrary Telling The Truth Liars Fiction Writing Pathological Liar

Author:Paul Harding

“I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying fiction writing at the University of Iowa.”

Ifs Want Writing Years Fiction Study Needed Discipline University Valuable Day To Day Obsessive Fiction Writing Iowa

Author:John Dalton

“First of all, writing at best - certainly fiction writing - more and more I think is magic.”

Thinking Writing Firsts Fiction Magic Fiction Writing

Author:Kathy Acker

“I took two fiction-writing courses in college and majored in literature. I felt that I had a knack though I wouldn't go so far as to call it a talent. But it scared me. I felt it was a childish thing wanting to write and that I would forget about it eventually.”

Writing Two Courses Literature Felt Forget Fiction Talent College Scared Fiction Writing Knack Childish Things

Author:Ben Fountain

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Fiction Writing Quotes