Quotessence
Home / Topics / Writing Craft Quotes

Writing Craft Quotes

Browse 130 quotes about Writing Craft.

Writing Craft Quotes

“Create a world in front of your readers where they can taste, smell, touch, hear, see, and move. Or else they are likely going to move on to another book.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureImaginationFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingShow Don T TellTactile Imagery
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Dreams are good at playing with your memory. They love leaving no trace behind and hate to show up once again in the morning.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureImaginationFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingCapture DreamsRemember Dreams
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“They say instant communication is not communication at all but merely a frantic, trivial, nerve-wracking bombardment of clichés, threats, fads, fashions, gibberish and advertising. However, who has not hung on a scripture, a quote, a statement, only to stumble upon the key phrase that brought all things to a turning point? The greatest sermons and speeches were pieced together by illuminating thoughts that powered men to surpass their own commonness. It is the sparkling magic of letters forming words, and those words colliding with passion, that makes statements into wisdom.”

WisdomQuotesPassionCommonTechnologyPositive ThinkingCommunicationLettersConnectionsWordsStatementsWritersWriting QuotesRevelationSimplificationWriting CraftThinkersPhilosophersScribesPunchInstant CommunicationEmotional ConnectionsTo The PointSummation Of ThoughtBits Of WisdomBrevity In EmotionSermons Summarized
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“A writer gets to live yet another life every time he or she creates a new story.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Writing a story is like going on a date—you will spoil it if you aren't living in the moment.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingFocus On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“If certain aspect needs to be inconsistent, it must better be consistently inconsistent throughout the story.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Be a good reader first if you wish to become a good writer.”

WritingArtStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersArts And HumanitiesQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Tell a story in fewer and simpler words.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Turn those deep feelings and obsessions of your heart into captivating pieces of literature.”

WritingStoriesArtistReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting From The HeartWriting StyleAspiring WritersArts And HumanitiesQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

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

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleCharacter DevelopmentWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingLetting Characters Drive
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

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

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteRulesAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingBreak The RulesBreaking Bad
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“If you think there is no time to write now, there will never be.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Good writing ideas don’t have to be about political turmoil, mass killings, capitalism, racism, injustice, and so on. Find that one idea that has deep roots in your heart.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting From The HeartWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“A writer can do without food for a few hours but not without the sight of books.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Ideas either age like fine wine or rot like potatoes over time.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting From The HeartWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingWriting Ideas
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“If you are a singer, you must sing. If you are a dancer, you must dance. If you are a writer, you must write. Don’t suffocate your heart.”

WritingStoriesArtistReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersArts And HumanitiesQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“As you become a better writer, the writing becomes more difficult. You toil harder to tell a story in a smaller number of words.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionCreativityBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryCreative ProcessPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceCreative PeopleWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On Writing
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“Clichés are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.”

WritingStoriesReadingLiteratureFictionBooksStorytellingWritersShort StoryPower Of WordsCreative WritingWriteAuthorsWriting AdviceWriting FictionWriting CraftOn WritingStory WritingWriting StyleAspiring WritersQuotes On WritingFundamentals Of WritingFundamentals Of Creative WritingTips On WritingCliches
Book:On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
Create image

“I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)... 'I spoke to three scholars,' [the character says 'at last.'] ...two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]' ...I can see that he's excited. [narrator]' ...Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a 'literary' writer based on this quote. A 'literary' author knows that a character's excitement should be 'shown' in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator's commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the 'I can see that he's excited' sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.(Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.)Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho ... Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), 'a remote human possibility.' He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation—none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else—suggests that he is not happy!”

LifeWritingInspirationTruthHappinessInspiringEducationInspirational LifeBirthFameInspirational AttitudeFortuneFaultsIslamEducationalHappyDialogueExcitementParadiseIslamicLife And DeathImperfectionInspiring QuotesPublishingReincarnationGrammarWriting AdviceCritiqueNovelsBorn AgainLiterature QuotesAuthorshipFamous AuthorsIslamic QuotesRomanLiterary CriticismHuman PotentialWriting CraftCraftsmanshipCharacterizationCraftRoman PayneWriting From The HeartNovelistNarrationHappiness Positive OutlookPaulo CoelhoPayneLiterary TheoryFame And FortuneAdvice For WritersKoranHumanenessSentence StructureCoelhoLeonard CohenAlephArt Of LiteraturePhrasingCohenWriting ArtWriting As A ProfessionCritique Of ModernityGrammaticalWriting And Art
Author:Roman Payne
Create image

“In Edmund Gosse, Agnes Smedley, Geoffrey Wolff, we have a set of memoirists whose work records a steadily changing idea of the emergent self. But for each of them a flash of insight illuminating that idea grew out of the struggle to clarify one's own formative experience; and in each case the strength and beauty of the writing lie in the power of concentration with which this insight is pursued, and made to become the the writer's organizing principle. That principle at work is what makes a memoir literature rather than testament.”

WritingSelfMemoirWriting CraftWriting MemoirMemoir As Literature
Book:The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative
Create image

“She logged in and read a few of her old posts, smiling at the issues she had raged about and shaking her head at how some of the rants now seemed pretentious and judgmental. She had grown so much without even realizing she had. Mythili typed out the draft, spicing it up subtly and after a last read, she published it. Admiring the brand new post on her main page, she realized she missed writing. She had barely written anything since her last by-line. Typing this out, she felt like she was back with a long-lost friend who understood her. It was like snuggling up in a warm blanket when a thunderstorm raged outside.”

WritingGrowing UpBloggingWriting Craft
Book:A Newlywed’s Adventures in Married Land
Create image

“The fact that acute differences exist between social and cultural classes seems to be acknowledged in most of the world, but in the United States, where democracy is often confounded with egalitarianism, even the idea that social classes exist has long been taboo. It is, however, a writer’s specialty to deal with taboos, to speak the unspoken, to reveal, to uncover, to show in the interaction of people the difference between what we profess and how we act. Moreover, because touchy subjects arouse emotion, they are especially useful for the writer who knows that arousing the emotions of his audience is the test of his skill.”

WritingAmericaClassDemocracyWriting CraftEgalitarianismTaboos
Book:Stein on Writing
Create image

“Don’t write with a pen. Ink tends to give the impression the words shouldn’t be changed. Write with what gives you the most sensual satisfaction. Write in a hard-covered notebook with green lined pages. Green is easy on the eyes. Blank white pages seems to challenge you to create the world before you start writing. It may be true that you, the modern poet, must make the world as you go, but why be reminded of it before you even have one word on the page? Don’t erase. Cross out rapidly and violently, never with slow consideration if you can help it. Start, as some smarty once said, in the middle of things. Play with syntax. Never want to say anything so strongly that you have to give up the option of finding something better – if you have to say it, you will. Read your poem aloud many times. If you don’t enjoy it every time, something may be wrong. If you ask a question, don’t answer it, or answer a question not asked, or defer. (If you can answer the question, to ask it is to waste time). Maximum sentence length: seventeen words. Minimum: One. Don’t be afraid to take emotional possession of words. If you don’t love a few words enough to own them, you will have to be very clever to write a good poem.”

PoetryWriting Craft
Book:The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing
Create image

“Talking to oneself is a recognized means to learn, in fact, self-speak may be the seed concept behind human consciousness. Private conversation that we hold with ourselves might represent the preeminent means to provoke the speaker into thinking (a form of cognitive auto-stimulation), modify behavior, and perhaps even amend the functional architecture of the plastic human brain. Writing out our private talks with oneself enables a person to “see” what they think, a process that invites reflection, ongoing thoughtful discourse with the self, and refinement of our thinking patterns and beliefs. Internal sotto voice conversations with our private-self provide several advantages, but most people find it difficult to maintain self-speak for an extended period. Internal dialogue must compete with external distractions. Writing allows a person to resume a personal dialogue where they left off before interrupted by outside stimuli. A written disquisition also provides a permanent record that a person can examine, amend, supplement, update, or reject.”

WritingPersonal GrowthPersonal DevelopmentSelf DiscoveryMemoirDialogueSelf RealizationSelf DeterminationWriting ProcessWriting LifeWriting AdviceMemoir WritingStory Of My LifeWriting PhilosophyWriting CraftDistractionsStory Of Your LifeTalking To YourselfTalking Quotes
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
Create image

“I killed it," Athan lamented. "I am a fool." His righteous anger, his arguments, his adoration for the being who claimed Eldaloth's name faded and disintegrated with all the suffering life behind him. A poisonous dread seeped as deep into his soul as the exultant honor and pride he had felt just minutes before. The vast gap between the two emotions a crater into which his very soul plummeted in free-fall.”

WritingIdentityRegretGuiltSelf RealizationWriting CraftMetaphors
Book:Sacrifice
Create image