If you want to be a writer,
you must do two things above all others:
read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around
these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.
Stephen King
There really is no other way. If you want to be a writer you actually have to write. Write anything. Write something horrible or not. It doesn’t matter. Just write. The same is true of reading. If you don’t read, how will you understand the very craft that you want to create? Here are sixteen quotes to remind you of the importance of getting into the habit of writing, where people work and why they write. I hope any one of these will inspire you to create that habit!
Get Into the Writing Habit
Keeping a habit, in the smallest way, protects and strengthens it. I write every day, even if it’s just a sentence, to keep my habit of daily writing strong.
Gretchen Rubin
When I wake up in the morning, I need the writing to go to. I begin there. And that’s not an accident, I mean, that habit of getting up in the morning and going to my writing first thing.
John Edgar Wideman
Aim to write for an hour per day. I used to be a teacher, and an hour a day before school was all it took for me to write my first book. Don’t get discouraged if a holiday or illness interrupts your writing habit. Just start it up again.
Caroline Lawrence
Where You Do It Only Matters To You
I need to write in a small room – the smaller the better. I can’t write in a big room where someone might sneak up behind my back.
Douglas Preston
I kind of have my little OCD woodshed at my house where everything is just right when I go write.
Sam Hunt
I write in my study, where I also have my prayer altar. I believe that keeps me focused and gives me positive energy and reminds me that I’m merely the instrument of greater creative forces.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Twice a year, I take myself off to a self-imposed ‘writer’s retreat’, staying at a small inn or on a friend’s farm, where I am all alone and do nothing other than write. Jane Green
I write in the mornings once the kids have gone to school, taking my laptop and a coffee to a little writer’s room in town where I plant noise-canceling headphones on my head and get to work.
Jane Green
When I first started writing, and no one was paying me, in order to feel like I had a real job, I would get out of bed, put on a jacket and tie every morning, and sit down at my desk.
Graham Moore
Why You Write Is Personal Too
I write to tell my grandchildren where they come from, and what their grandparents were up to, and I hope they will in their own way continue. I invite anyone else to listen in.
Arthur Hertzberg
I always write to understand my place in the world. I can see myself and my life unfold on the page, and I can understand my strengths, my weaknesses – I can see where I need to step up a bit.
Jason Mraz
Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.
Tennessee Williams
One of the reasons I began to write was because I wanted stories for my children where the characters spoke as they did and had similar life experiences.
Theresa Breslin
Take it from me: I really love making things up, which is why I write fiction for a living.
Kristin Gore
I’m more interested in interpersonal relationships – between lovers families, siblings. That’s why I write about how we treat each other.
Terry McMillan
Why a ghost story? Well, I love them. They’re fun to read – and, yes, fun to write.
Chris Bohjalian
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you found a quote that sticks with you and inspires you to sit down and write. If you’re looking for additional training in writing, then please check out the classes that are available through MasterClass. You can study with Judy Blume, Malcolm Gladwell, Shonda Rhimes, Aaron Sorkin, William Patterson, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, and more.
An excellent post with good insights from those who make the time, find the place, and know their why. I find I need a deadline, like a weekly blog post, to make writing a priority. But, I miss my fiction. I just haven’t had the headspace for that for a little while. These things sometimes ebb and flow.
I like the security of a deadline sometimes or maybe it just makes me scramble? Usually what happens is that my daily writing habit shows me a direction to take.
Great post. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by.
Some great tips here and advice. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m so glad that you liked it!
I agree totally but a medical condition found last year has stopped me posting or writing with regularity. My first post in months was yesterday but I don’t know if my brain will alow me tomorrow. I definitely won’t risk ruining my novel so work has stopped on serious writing and I will attempt to dip in and out of micro and flash when and if my condition allows. Reading a whole book maybe a way off but writing is part of me and I refuse to give up.
I’m sorry that medical concerns are affecting your ability to keep your writing up. But it sounds like it’s your passion and you’re doing what you can. Which is all that anyone can do.
Thank you for saying so, in healthier times I would say exactly what your post said. Good job by the way.
Thank you.
I’m about to publish my 17th book, and have written more; I have never thought ‘I want to be a writer’. I just wanted to write. And that is the key, I think!
Yes. That is the key. Write because you want to write.
I’m a big believer in getting some basic writing training. I’ve seen too much bad writing out there.
True. I’m just trying to encourage people to sit down and write in their first place. The first stage of writing is messy. But the second stage needs the writer to have some training.
My hubby needs to read this!!!
🙂
This is so true for me..loved it!
I’m so glad you stopped by and liked it.
I love these suggestions and rituals. I definitely make time to read but I don’t make nearly enough time to write, which sounds like is grossly negligent if I want to be a writer anytime soon.
Writers write. Or so I’m told. It says so on my wall right in front of my face as I sit down to write!
I write in my head in the shower, does that count? LOL! 🙂
I love the one about an hour a day. It seems so doable.
Jodie
This post totally resonates with me. Especially the writing in a smaller room and so people can’t sneak up behind you I’m always paranoid about that!
These are very inspirational thoughts for all writers regardless of their genre. I write amazingly when I’m out running but can never seem to remember any of it when I get home! The creativity seems to flow best when I’m exercising and away from a computer. Thanks Jennifer.
I know what you mean. It’s sometimes when I’m out walking that I think I’m the most brilliant. I’ll never know because I forget it before I can record it. But I figure if I thought it once it will come ’round again.
Exactly! I love that we think we’re brilliant for a second then forget what it was we were even thinking ?
I always love seeing why and where people write.
Me too.
Great post, I really need to work on developing a solid habit of writing. I often just write when The spirit moves me, so to speak. But, sometimes the spirit forgets to drop by my house and not much get written. Creating a habit is a goal of mine.
A habit goes a long way in helping that pesky spirit stop by and sprinkle you with ideas!
Right now I dealing with writer’s block so this post was necessary reading.
I’m glad it found you when you needed it.
Love. This. Post. You have to write and read to be a writer, that’s for damned sure. And if you’re wanting to be one but have no training or no idea where to start, awesome suggestion of Masterclass. I did the James Patterson one and it’s great stuff.
Those Masterclasses are awesome. It’s amazing at the sheer talent that we get access to.
Uncle Stevie’s “On Writing” has been my Bible on writing (see what I did there? ?). I’m slowly getting into the habit of writing something every day.
Great post!