Words on Writing

"I came to understand that art and creation is not simply another profession but a reason for being alive on this earth."

-Howard Fast

more writing tips!

in case you get picked up by an agent/publisher:

-Never transfer or assign your copyright or "all rights" in the work to your publisher!

-Limit the languages, territories and formats in which your publisher is granted writes!

- Make sure you're entitled to terminate the contract!

writing tip!

-Publisher should only have exclusive rights to your work while it is actively marketing and selling your book.

Inspiration- Sue Grafton

"He'd tell me, 'Every writer has the big scenes in mind, but if you don't take particular care with the scenes in between the moments leading up to the crowning moment in your book, the reader may not be with you. The reader may, in fact, become bored or impatient and toss the book aside before reaching the critical passage that inspired you to begin work.'

-Sue Grafton

Writers :)

"In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, in Australia you have to explain what a writer is."

-Geoffrey Cotterell

Writing Quotes

"Words are clothes that thoughts wear."

-Samuel Butler

Inspirational Quote

"Opportunities are disguised by hard work, so most people don't recognize them."

-Ann Landers

You know you're closer to publication when...

1. when you begin to receive "encouraging" rejections


2. they reject the manuscript you submitted but ask you to send your next one


3. your mentor tells you to contact his agent without you asking for a referral


4. agents and/or editors proactively contact you because she spotted your quality writing somewhere online or in print


5. you need more sophisticated critique partners


6. you understand why your work had been rejected

Quote- I don't know from where!

"The role of keeping a notebook is to remind you that you are a writer...image album, record thoughts events dreams and revelations...valuable for future generations."

i love this quote

Writing Inspiration

"I want to see my name on the screen as the author of a movie."

-Gene Perret

Inspiration from a Writer

"But the money to me is a wonderful by product of writing; it is not the reason to write. "

-Gregory Poirier

Writing Inspiration

"Writing is about memorable phrases, evocative descriptions. It's about being a link in someone else's understanding of the world. That morning, I learned that writing is about giving a single person, ONE READER, the right words."

-Catharine Bramkamp

Inspirations

"Looking back, I'm not sure if I ever would have become a writer if it hadn't been for that professor who said I probably couldn't make the grade, and he doubted if I'd ever get out of the "provisional" category. I made it out.
By now, I've written and had published 286 books, mostly fiction, but twelve non-fiction books as well. Motivation? Yes, that "provisional" tag still bugs me. But I realize that I had used that tag to help me make my dream of being a novelist come to pass.
I'm going to keep on writing novels until I learn how."

-Chet Cunningham

Inspirational Quote

"But those of us to whom this gift has been given have a responsibility to be persistent about writing and publishing our work until a sufficient body of work has been assembled. Our message is important. The world needs it. That's our job."

-Elizabeth Engstrom

Need Writing Inspiration?

"There's a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises and you might not even be able to uncompromise yourself. If you write for life, you'll work hard; you'll do what's honest, not what pays."

-Toni Morrison

Sophie Kinsella Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqTxi4zhLhQ&feature=player_embedded

Above is the a link/video from Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic books, Remember Me?, etc). She speaks about how she edits her work and gives a super helpful tip. i love you, Sophie!

Words on Writing

"I became a writer because I was a writer, because wherever I looked there was a story to tell."

-Howard Fast

Writing Inspiration

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

- Ernest Hemingway

Inspirational Quote

"A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent because everything she does is golden. In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway."


-Junot Diaz

how i started...

(a submission i recently wrote- without double checking, as usual. That's a fact I have to work on!)





It was a quiet early-summer day and there was absolutely nothing to do.

It was too hot for my sisters to want to play with me and too humid for my parents to take me to the park.

What I did next was the only thing that could quench my boredom...I snuck into my sisters' bedroom, very quietly.

I knew exactly where she kept her diary and I figured that it was as good a time as any to begin reading it.
So I did...thoroughly. Maybe twice.

I had finished reading the last page when an idea struck me-I can publish a family newspaper! Everyone was so busy doing their own interesting and grown up things that they had forgotten all about me.

I began to write and write and write. Than I rewrote the front page about three times (so I can pass it out to my family members- there was no copy machine in my house.)

It now occurs to me that the whole time I wrote and wrote and wrote, no one came to check on me. Seeing me sitting on the floor and writing on something was my usual past time if I was stuck indoors.

Finally, my masterpiece was complete. I wanted to wait to hand them out, but I just couldn't. I headed to the living room and handed out a copy of "Family Times" (a spin on 'Family Ties')

My Mother and Father had practically burst into tears and hugged me into submission before they read the article about my sister's diary...then...

chaos.

There was no time for them to hide the third copy from my sister.

So I ran and ran and ran.

And that's the last time the Family Times was published.