“If you're passionate about telling a story, write the book. Time spent writing isn't time wasted. You're making art. That's worth something.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“Another painful writing truth = You can follow every bit of advice, do everything you're supposed to do, and still not succeed the 1st time. Writing = art. It's not about ticking all the boxes. Your story must, above all, compel. If it doesn't, you've got to figure out why. There's this thing we cal…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“So if you want to know if your edits are improving your book, consider all these points. It doesn't matter how many times you check for typos if you don't have an active plot or your main character doesn't have an arc. The book should feel TIGHTER with each edit. Here's some tough love: It's very ra…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“So when it comes to how you know if your book is any good, I'd say that if you can hire an experienced pro to tell you, you'll *actually* know. If you're going it alone, querying will tell you. I didn't know if I was technically ready to query, but I was doing it anyway. I suggest sending out 5 quer…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“We had a question this morning: How do you come up with names for characters and places in Science Fiction and Fantasy? Easy. STEAL 'EM. Kidding. You can't have Mr. Spuck go to Chogwarts. But you can take inspiration. Start by considering names that stuck with you. Why? Luke Skywalker = Timeless Bib…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“1. Here's the question: How do you get more comfortable with descriptive writing? And I'll add: Without verging into purple prose or an info dump. This ties in with worldbuilding, which is one of my favorite things. 2. So. Worldbuilding starts on page 1. The words you use, the things you point out,…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“When in doubt, write. To celebrate, write. As a balm, write. When you mess up, write. To escape, write. When the world burns, write.”— Quiara Alegría Hudes, twitter.com
“I hope when people ask what you’re going to do with your English degree and/or creative writing degree you’ll say: ‘Continue my bookish examination of the contradictions and complexities of human motivation and desire;’ or maybe just: ‘Carry it with me, as I do everything that matters.’ And then smi…”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“For the reader, a work of art can make a kind of mantra: by giving form to devastation, the poem rescues the reader from a darkness without shape or gravity; it is an island in a free fall; it becomes his companion in grief, his rescuer, a proof that suffering can be made somehow to yield meaning.”— Louise Glück, amazon.com
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”— Robert Louis Stevenson, amazon.com
“Think while walking, walk while thinking, and let writing be but the light pause, as the body on a walk rests in contemplation of wide open spaces.”— Frederic Gros, amazon.com
“When you write outside your experience, you aren't inviting others into your house. You're inviting yourself into theirs.”— Lauren DeStefano, twitter.com
“Writing is scary. Learning it's wrong is scary. Fixing it is scary. But ignoring these things is failing your readers, your book, and you.”— Lauren DeStefano, twitter.com
“What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.”— Beth Kephart, amazon.com
“Do you know, yet, what you're writing about? Do you know what is at stake?”— Beth Kephart, amazon.com
“One who writes memoir wishes to step into that light, not to see one's own face—that is not possible—but to feel the length of shadow cast by the night.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com
“True memoir is written, like all literature, in an attempt to find not only a self but a world.”— Patricia Hampl, amazon.com