by Naomi L. | November 1, 2017 | Blog, Creative Writing |
Welcome to November, otherwise known to writers as National Novel Writing Month! It’s time once again to shift your writing into high gear by writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days! Of course, it’s not so easy to take on this challenge without a fair amount of motivation to get you going, and one of my favorite sources of writing inspiration is collections of quotes by well-established writers. Over the past two years, I’ve started November by sharing NaNoWriMo motivation in the form of ten writing quotes from famous authors. Now let’s dive into another set of quotes for inspiration!
So to get you motivated for NaNoWriMo 2017, here are another ten inspirational quotes about writing from famous storytellers. Enjoy, and good luck in this year’s NaNoWriMo!
1) If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. – Stephen King
2) Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent. – Neil Gaiman
3) After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world. – Philip Pullman
4) All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. – Ernest Hemingway
5) A word after a word after a word is power. – Margaret Atwood
6) There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you. – Beatrix Potter
7) A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. ― Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades
8) I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. – Joss Whedon
9) You can make anything by writing. – C.S. Lewis
10) Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either. – Meg Cabot
What are your thoughts on these writing quotes? Any others you’d add to the list for NaNoWriMo?
by Naomi L. | November 30, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing |
November 2016 has been an incredibly hectic month, hasn’t it? From the chaos surrounding the U.S. presidential election to the final sprints of NaNoWriMo, it certainly hasn’t been the easiest few weeks for many writers who actively follow politics. As it draws to a close, I confess I found myself more emotionally drained this month than I can recall feeling at any point during the last few years (and that’s saying something). Sounds like now would be a good time for some more inspirational words!
So just for fun, and as a little ray of sunshine for anyone else who may be needing it these days, here are ten inspirational quotes for hope and a brighter future. Enjoy!
1) You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one. – John Lennon
2) It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. – Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
3) We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
4) There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
5) Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. – Martin Luther King Jr.
6) There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster. – Dalai Lama XIV
7) Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. – Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption
8) The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination. – Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Fall of Atlantis
9) I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death. – Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
10) The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. – President Barack Obama
What are your thoughts on these quotes? Any others you would add to the list?
by Naomi L. | November 2, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing |
Welcome to November! National Novel Writing Month is upon us again, a whole 30 days for writers to put their excuses aside, scrape together all those loose ideas, and finally write that 50,000-word novel! It’s certainly an intimidating task to say the least, but a little motivation can go a long way in helping you get started. Last year, I shared some helpful writing tips in the form of 10 inspirational quotes from famous authors, so this year I’m sharing some more quotes, this time about the creative process and what it means to be a writer.
So on that note, here are 10 more inspirational writing quotes for novel-writing motivation. Enjoy, and good luck in this year’s NaNoWriMo!
National Novel Writing Month
1) The scariest moment is always just before you start. – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
2) And by the way, 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, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
3) Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters. – Neil Gaiman
4) There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
5) You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world. – Ray Bradbury
6) Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
7) I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. – Anne Frank
8) Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
9) The first draft is just you telling yourself the story. – Terry Pratchett
10) Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. – Louis L’Amour
What are your thoughts on these writing quotes? Any others you’d add to the inspirational list for NaNoWriMo?
by Naomi L. | August 31, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing |
It’s been a while since I last participated in Silver Threading and Ronovan Writes‘s Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge, so I’m jumping back in with a new piece today! With everything that’s been going on in my life lately, I really needed some creative inspiration this month. I hope you’ll enjoy my post for this challenge!
The theme for this week was strength. I know I usually pick author quotes for these challenges, so just for fun, today I went with a quote from a popular fictional character instead:
We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling, 2000)
Harry Potter has been one of my favorite book series since I was a child, and I remember always admiring Albus Dumbledore for his wisdom. Though the context of this quote is the foreshadowing of a war against Dark magic, Dumbledore’s words are just as relevant to the real world trials of good versus evil. So on that note, here’s a short poem I wrote inspired by these wise words. Enjoy!
Stronger United
How strong can we be
When we stand on our own,
When we pull our own weight,
Face our problems alone?
We may each try to be
The strongest at heart,
But with more foes than friends,
We will all fall apart.
How much stronger are we
When we all stand together,
Like brothers in arms
And birds of a feather?
When we fight the same battles
And chase the same dreams,
In the end we will prove
That true strength is in teams.
We are only as strong
As we are united,
And only as weak
As we are divided.
Victory comes
When no one gives in,
For divided we fall,
But united we win.
I hope you enjoyed my poem! Be sure to join the Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge and share your quote-inspired works! Thanks for reading!
Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge is a weekly blogging event by Colleen Chesebro of Silver Threading in collaboration with Ronovan Hester of Ronovan Writes. Be sure to check out both these authors’ blogs for your weekly dose of inspiration! Happy writing!
by Naomi L. | July 13, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing |
Why not go for another round of Silver Threading and Ronovan Writes‘s Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge? With the end of my graduate program in sight and my busiest days just ahead of me, I need some creative inspiration now more than ever!
The theme for this week was beauty, and the quote I chose is one commonly misattributed to Marilyn Monroe:
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. – Marilyn Monroe (?)
This quote is often credited to Ms. Monroe in lists of inspirational celebrity sayings, but the truth is I haven’t yet been able to confirm its true source. Still, bumper-stickery as it sounds, I thought it would make great inspiration for a short poem about my favorite kind of beauty: individuality! Enjoy!
Don’t Be Boring, Be Beautiful
Don’t be perfect,
Because perfection is dull.
Be imperfect,
And see the unique beauty all around you.
Don’t be sane,
Because sanity is overrated.
Be a little crazy,
And discover the genius ideas in the world.
Don’t be serious,
Because seriousness is grim.
Be ridiculous,
And enjoy the excitement in life.
Don’t be boring.
Be imperfect,
Crazy,
Ridiculous,
Beautiful.
Because imperfection is beauty,
Madness is genius,
And it’s better to be
Absolutely ridiculous than
Absolutely boring.
I hope you enjoyed my poem! Be sure to join the Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge and share your quote-inspired works! Thanks for reading!
Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge is a weekly blogging event by Colleen Chesebro of Silver Threading in collaboration with Ronovan Hester of Ronovan Writes. Be sure to check out both these authors’ blogs for your weekly dose of inspiration! Happy writing!
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