The work is hard. Let's be honest — it's really hard. How many times have you sat down and toiled away on several pages only to throw them out thinking they were less than worthy?
Writing is just as much about self-doubt as it is about perseverance. I think we all suffer from nearly crippling bouts of doubt when we are creating something. Will it be good? Will anyone like it? Am I good enough?
But the hardest part is to silence the voice of doubt and keep putting the words on the page, one word at a time.
I always find inspiration in the words of other writers. Some of my favorite writers have offered juicy nuggets of advice over their career, and when I'm 'having a moment,' I open my writing journal and re-read their sage advice.
Here are just a few bits of advice from some of my favorite writers. What's your favorite bit of writing advice?
See you on the other side!
"Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong." — Neil Gaiman
"Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." – Anton Chekhov
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” ― Anne Lamott
"Writing is its own reward." — Henry Miller
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” — Ernest Hemmingway
“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.” — Truman Capote
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” — Stephen King
"You have to fail to get it right. It's ok to make mistakes, to write books that aren’t as good as other books. That’s where you learn the techniques," — Neil Gaiman
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes. The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story… to make him/her forget, whenever possible, that he/she is reading a story at all.“ — Stephen King
"The road to hell is paved with adverbs." — Stephen King
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