I do not like to write - I like to have written.

~Gloria Steinem (This is my sentiment, exactly!)

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard

A metaphor is like a simile. ~Author Unknown

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. ~Baltasar Gracián

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~Sharon O'Brien

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~Burton Rascoe

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

And finally--

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
~William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing"

Hope you're busy writing during National Novel Writing Month! It's still not too late to start, but you must be finished by November 30th.

~ Roxanne Sherwood

Take 5: A Daily Dose of Writing Quotes

“Writing is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating.”
—Kate Braverman, American novelist

“A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter.... A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.” - E. B. White, children's author

“The Artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” —Emile Zola, French writer

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. . . . 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." - E.L. Doctorow, American author

“You have to learn how to use your energy and not squander it. In the writing process, the more a thing cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest." - Doris Lessing, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature

Take 5: A Daily Dose of Writing Quotes

”Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”—Sylvia Plath, poet

“Writing is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating.”—Kate Braverman, poet & experimental writer

“Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.”
Charles Bukowski, poet & novelist


“In my first writing class, I was given the most valuable advice that a young writer could receive. The professor said, 'Take a situation that intrigues you and ask yourself two questions: Suppose? and, What if? Then turn the situation into fiction.'”
Mary Higgins Clark, novelist

“Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.”
Colette, author of Gigi


For a great Pearls Before Swine comic strip on editors, go here.

A Friday Smorgasbord

I gathered together a few odds and ends of interest to writers:

Don't forget author Susan May Warren's Sugar Blast! It's a Facebook Party tonight from 5-7 PM wrapping up the celebration of the release of her newest book, PJ Sugar: Nothing But Trouble.

Susan will be
~ answering your questions
~ giving you a sneak peak into book 2 in the PJ Sugar collection
~ letting you test your trivia skills
~ giving away books and a GINORMOUS Sugar Basket!

Also ... everyone in attendance will receive a downloadable book plate and discussion questions for Nothing But Trouble for your book club, reading group, or just for yourself! Her Facebook account name is Susan May Warren. See you there!

I know school's out and no one wants to think about homework. But this is for all you year-round wordsmiths out there:

Check out Spell It! Tricks and Tips for Spelling Bee Success here.

It is a treasure trove of spelling information with lists for Latin words, Old English words, Japanese words, Greek words, Italian words and more. Each section includes tidbits of information to help you learn words, like:

~The letter k rarely appears in words from Latin, and its
sound is nearly always represented by c as in canary, prosaic,
canine, mediocre, Capricorn, cognition, ductile, incorruptible,
vernacular, innocuous, and many other words on the list.

~Old English likes double consonants following short vowels, especially if the vowel is in a stressed syllable. Examples include quell, paddock, mattock, sallow, fennel, hassock, errand, barrow, kipper, and Wiccan.

And here's something to aim for if you're a fiction writer:

"We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images."-John Gardner, author

Take 5: A Daily Dose of Writing Quotes

"In the beginning you may be writing around what you want to say instead of getting to the core. Keep writing. The route may be circuitous but after you zero in on what you truly want to say, you'll see that during all those false starts and detoured storylines, you weren't wasting time, as you feared. You were developing as a writer, developing a discerning eye and ear, finding your own voice, learning to respect self-imposed deadlines."
~Madeleine Costigan, editor and author

"In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition (perhaps including his own doubts), and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw."
~John Gardner, author

"A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories."
~John Irving, author

"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."
~Isaac Asimov, author

“Like the committed writer, the passionate writer is sure of herself. Not only that, she's on fire with certainty. Ideas explode from her like hot spots from the sun. When she writes, she tears the paper with her enthusiasm.”
~Judy Reeves, writer & teacher

Take 5: A Daily Dose of Writing Quotes

“One nice thing about putting the thing away for a couple of months before looking at it is that you start to appreciate your own wit. Of course, this can be carried too far. But it's kind of cool when you crack up a piece of writing, and then realize you wrote it. I recommend this feeling.”~ Steven Brust, fantasy writer

“Writing is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating.”~Kate Braverman, novelist & poet

“If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."~Toni Morrison , Nobel Prize winning author

“You have to learn how to use your energy and not squander it. In the writing process, the more a thing cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest."~Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize winning author

“In my first writing class, I was given the most valuable advice that a young writer could receive. The professor said, 'Take a situation that intrigues you and ask yourself two questions: Suppose? and, What if? Then turn the situation into fiction.”
~Mary Higgins Clark, suspense novel author