As a writer, you know the power of words.
Sometimes, when you’re really feeling stuck, the only thing that will get you through a creative block is some very powerful words. Words from some of the best writers who not only know how to inspire with their craft, but who have been through those creative ruts themselves and made it out the other side.
If writer’s block and a lack of motivation has got you down, let these wise words get you back on the “write” page.
“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
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” –Thomas Mann
“If you dig deep and keep peeling the onion, artists and freelance writers are the leaders in society – the people who start to get new ideas out.” –Allan Savory
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” –Richard Bach
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy and that hard.” –Neil Gaiman
“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” –Ray Bradbury
“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” –William Faulkner
“Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got.” –Philip Jose Farmer
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” –Stephen King
“The life of the professional writer – like that of any freelancer, whether she be a plumber or a podiatrist – is predicated on willpower. Without it there simply wouldn’t be any remuneration, period.” –Will Self
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” –Mark Twain
“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” –Lawrence Block
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” –Ernest Hemingway
“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
“Sixteen years as a freelance features journalist taught me that neither the absence of ‘the Muse’ nor the presence of ‘the block’ should be allowed to hinder the orderly progress of a book.” – Jim Crace
“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.” – Ray Bradbury
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” – John Steinbeck
“A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.” – Sidney Sheldon
“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” – William Faulkner
“It is all very well for you to write simply and the simpler the better. But do not start to think so damned simply. Know how complicated it is and then state it simply.” – Ernest Hemingway
“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” – Peter De Vries
Feeling inspired yet? I bet you are. Get to writing then! But first, which quote was it that spoke to you? Let me know in the comments below: