Writing as a craft has existed from the first moments man discovered how to scratch symbols into wood and stone. Since that time we have sought to master it and tighten our grasp on the Muse, only to find she is far more slippery than anticipated.
As with any skill, a person first studies the masters. Imitates them. And then, in time, that person emerges with a voice all their own.
Here are ten of my favorite quotes on writing from men and women who came closer to mastering the craft than most.
10. C.S. Lewis
No man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
9. Ernest Hemingway
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
8. Stephen King
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us get up and go to work.
7. Henry David Thoreau
Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.
6. E.L. Doctorow
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
5. N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.
4. Gary Provost
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.
3. Rosellen Brown
It’s a job. It’s not a hobby. You don’t write the way you build a model airplane. You have to sit down and work, to schedule your time and stick to it. even if it’s just for an hour or each day, you have to get a babysitter and make the time. if your’e going to make writing succeed you have to approach it as a job.
2. Haruki Murakami
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
1. Ernest Hemingway
The first draft of anything is shit.