21 great quotes to get you fired up about your writing

Just been rejected by a publisher? Wondering how you're ever, ever going to get your manuscript finished? Considering giving up on being a writer? No, friend. Noooooo. You're just in a creative slump. As a writer, I know there are times when everything's flowing: ideas, time, money, words, praise. And there are times when Things Fall Apart (sorry) and you're tempted to give up. If that's you today, read this advice from those with experience in persistence, including me.

1. 'Learning to fail also includes learning to write like crap and not care. Push through. We all write like crap...The reader will never see it. You’ll revise it to perfection and delete the bad parts. The key is to have something down to work with. So learn to fail. Keep going.' - Hugh Howey, author of the Silo series

2. J.K. Rowling: Failure is so important. It doesn't get spoken about enough. We speak about success all the time. But it's the ability to use failure that often leads to the greatest achievement. I've often met people who are terrified, in a straitjacket of their own making, because they don't want to try for fear of failing. Rock bottom wasn't fun at all. But it was liberating.

Oprah: How so?

J.K. Rowling: What did I have to lose?

- The Oprah Winfrey Show

3. 'Go, go, go! Sorry to have to remind you, but one day you’ll be dead and you won’t be able to write.' - Catriona Ross, Story Star: How to write your first novel and use the uncanny power of fiction to turn your wishes into reality.

4. 'I play and I keep playing because I choose to play. Even if it's not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything.' - Andre Agassi, Open

5. 'Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be caused by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That's not a possibility. It's only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I'm the one who's hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don't have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I'm the one who can stop hurting me. It's within my power.' - Byron Katie, Loving What Is

6. 'Your fear is energy. Use it to your advantage and have it catapult your performance. If you try to suppress it, it will only come back at you with a vengeance. Instead, just sit with fear in your body; notice it without panicking about it being there.' Simon Ekin, author ofThe Art of Courage

7. 'I once read that the only constant that all humans have is a 24-hour day. If you take out eight hours of building a career, and eight hours of sleep, you have eight hours to do something that you really love. This eye-opening observation changed my mind forever. You can never find time to write; you can only create it. To fit writing into my schedule, I break down the work into easy, manageable pieces. My latest novel is about 60,000 words. Instead of trying to write everything at once, I chose to write 1,000 words per day. Within 90 days I had the novel ready, including revisions.' - Kinyanjui Kombani, a.k.a. The Banker Who Writes.

8. 'Writing is a blast, but it's also work. So forget about waiting for inspiration. Sit your butt in a chair every day and write a set amount of words. In a few months, you'll have a completed novel. Repeat many times. Eventually, you'll have a story that could pay the mortgage. If you do this long enough, you might be able to quit your day job.' - Vaughn Heppner, author of The Lost Starship

9. Interviewer: Do you have any advice for younger writers?

Jim Harrison: Just start at page one and write like a son of a bitch.

- The Paris Review

10. 'It takes a long time to become an overnight success, so work harder than you ever thought possible. Then work some more. Don't give up. Don't complain. Just do it again. And then again. And if it's not working, my final piece of advice to you is probably the most surprising of all – quit. Don't stop writing entirely: Quit that particular sentence, paragraph or chapter. If it doesn't fit, cut it out, step over the blood, dry your tears and move on.' - Margie Orford, author of the Clare Hart series; O, The Oprah Magazine

11. 'You've got to plan; you've got to be meticulous, but there comes a time when you have to accept the consequences of what you're doing. You've got to dive in and go for it. If you dive in with thoughts of victory and defeat, if you're listening to both wolves, it ain't going to happen.' - Lewis Pugh, endurance swimmer

12. 'Each moment is a new beginning. The point of power is always in the present moment. You are never stuck.' - Louise Hay, author of You Can Heal Your Life

13. 'Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing. It is. If you can relax into time, not fight it, not fret at its passing, you will become better. You probably won’t be very good at the beginning, but you will become better, and eventually you may actually become good. But it doesn’t help to be afraid of time, or to measure yourself against prodigies like Conrad or Crane or Rimbaud. There’s always going to be somebody who did it better than you, faster than you, and you don’t want to make comparisons that will discourage you in your work. In fact, most fiction writers tend to graybeard their way into their best work.' - Tobias Wolff, The Paris Review

14. 'We all have talent but only those who see the value in their talent make it. ...get the necessary means to educate yourself about your passion and how to maximise your talents.' - Fashion designer Leah Misika

15. 'The best books come from deep within us. Consider your life experiences when you're seeking inspiration for characters and stories. I drew from losing a baby halfway through a pregnancy for one of my characters and from the loss of my dad for another. Readers can connect with characters who go through the same struggles they experience in their own lives. Tapping into how my own losses affected me allowed me to create more emotional, authentic stories. I treasure messages from readers who tell me they've gone through similar losses and that my books helped them find healing.' - Brenda Rothert, author of Bound

16. 'I'd define the essence of a writer in four words: imagination, passion, consistency, and quality. Keep your hopes above all else, no matter what. Never get discouraged, make the most of negative criticism, but don't get carried away with positive feedback either.' - Christophe Paul, author of The Penny Thief

17. 'Keep writing. Everyone reaches a point where they think they should throw the book away. I always think the difference between a published and unpublished writer is that the published one just kept writing.' - Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

18. 'Don't focus on the end goal. Focus on what's in front of you. Take it one stroke at a time.' - Chris Bertish, first solo trans-Atlantic stand-up paddleboarder

19. 'If you want to write a novel, ignore all advice. Just write the damn book, even if you're sure everyone else will hate it. If you like it, many others will.' - Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series

20. '”Sabrina, I want you to write me a novel.” Her commanding tone sends electricity down my arms. “Stop waiting for something or someone to inspire you,” she says. “Get inspired by your own life. Find a chaise; lie on it; be your own muse, for heaven’s sake. Can’t you see the best stories are already inside you, awaiting their release?”’ Catriona Ross,The Presence of

Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel

21. 'You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.' - Woodrow Wilson, (1856-1924), 28th U.S. president

Catriona Ross is the author of several books, including three guides for writers: Writing for Magazines: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know; Story Star: How to write your first novel and use the uncanny power of fiction to turn your wishes into reality, and the novel for aspirant novelists, The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel.

5 writing tips from novelists Alex Smith and Maire Fisher

It was exactly the sort of event I love: two authors in conversation in a coffee shop on a balmy weekday evening. Alex Smith, author of the young adult novel Devilskein & Dearlove, and Maire Fisher, author of Birdseye, dispensed writing wisdom:

The inspiration for a novel can come from anywhere – a moment, a name, an intriguing item. For Alex, her interest in antique keys was a catalyst: 'I knew my heroine ended up with a bunch of keys, and that meant she'd opened a series of doors.' For Maire, a fellow guest at a braai mentioned a relative called 'Ma Bess' and Maire decided to use this gutsy name for a character.

Fit your writing into your schedule. No matter how busy you are, you can find a gap to write. Alex wrote a commissioned novella between the hours of two and four in the morning when her toddler son was a baby! But these days, she writes when he's napping and after 8pm when he's in bed.

Let your story evolve. Have a general idea of where the story's going, but be prepared to change course. Allow your story and characters to take on a life of their own and develop naturally. Maire replaced her elderly narrator with a young girl, Bird: 'I realised she was trying to come out and tell the story.' (So she lost 40,000 words of her manuscript, but the book is all the better for it).

Find a friendly 'first reader'. Show your first draft to one or two friends or relatives who love reading, both authors advise. Ask them specific questions, as these yield constructive criticism: for example, 'I'm not sure about the ending. How do you think I could improve it?'  

The main thing is to enjoy the process. The writing of your first draft is the truly fun, creative, anything-goes part, they agreed. When you feel that 'urgency to get the story down', go with it. Write.

Read the novel that teaches you the art of novel-writing: The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel is available in the Kindle store.

'I (heart) The Love Book'

 A book gets written and published. Sometimes, a reader is moved to write about it.

 

I saw this reader review of my first novel, The Love Book, on Google Books recently, and was so touched. Thank you, whoever wrote it! By the way, The Love Book is a part-prequel to The Presence of Peacocks, the Peacock Book Project novel. 

'The only book to bring me to tears, The Love [Book] has restored my faith that a novel, scripted so beautifully, can change lives. Catriona Ross's novel has certainly changed mine, she has inspired me, beyond belief, through her emotive words and whimsical images.
A single mother who once pirouetted in tightly lace ballet pumps, now raises her three daughters, sultry rebellious Margot, observant and untamed Clare and young willowy Paulina. The story follows the four Carmichael women, each one gifted with their own unique beauty. We accompany them as they travel life's path, making mistakes, creating memorable moments all while lending each other support and the unspoken understanding, hoping to mend their broken home.
Clare is however, the ugly duckling a midst a flight of beautiful swans. She notices the evident beauty in her mother and sisters, but it is in the novel that we are able to see her discover its true meaning. With beauty comes the lovers of beauty: men. And there are many - they flit through the house, some re-appearing, other never to be seen again. Clare sees everything, and we are able to experience as she grows to understand the irrationality and surprises that accompany love. She allows us to view the lives of those around her and the effects they have on a household of four women. The way with which she views the lives of her family is insightful and intelligent and will reel in any reader with the power of tantalizing seduction. Clare's growth within the novel will uncover the memories of one's own childhood and realisation.
It is as though The Love Book were sitting on the library shelf, waiting for my grasp, so that it could lend the power held within its enchanting tale. The seeds were sown the minute I read the first page. Catriona's way with words is magical. She paints pictures in your mind, so vivid it's as though you were experiencing life through Clare's observant eyes. It is a breath-taking novel, enticing, evocative, captivating and so beautiful that turning the last page was both an excitement and a dread, for I couldn't wait to find out what happens, yet I couldn't bear the thought of it ending.
I can't wait to read it again.'

Write the novel of your dreams with The Peacock Book Project: www.peacockproject.net

Getting started: what's stopping you?

You know you want to write a book. You have a notebook full of scribblings and 4am insomnia ideas that could just work. You even possess that fabled hour every weekday to write, and the knowledge that if you actually used your daily hour, you'd have written an entire book by the end of this year. And a book might get you a pulisher, and a movie deal, and, and, and.

So what's stopping you?

Truth number 1: Writing is scary.
Yes, uh-huh. You actually have to put words down, and some of them might be crap. A lot of them. Maybe even all of them. The author's ego is delicate. Thoughts of being a writer who writes crappy words causes intense pain. My advice is that it's better to write something than nothing. 'Something' you can at least work with - say, edit it, polish it, give it a nip and tuck or even a whole makeover; 'nothing', however, will remain nothing.  

Truth number 2: Writing is hard work.
I've just finished reading a novel by one of my favourite authors – On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks – and a wry passage on the process of writing fiction rang true.

' … From what he could gather from novelists' own diaries and letters, the urge that was common to them all was a need to improve on the thin texture of life as they saw it; by ordering themes and events into an artistically pleasing whole, they hoped to give to existence a pattern, a richness and a value that in actuality it lacked. If after reading such a novel you looked again at life – its unplotted emergencies, narrative non sequiturs and pitiful lack of significance – in the light of literature, it might seem to glow with a little of that borrowed lustre; it might seem after all to be charged with some transcendent value.
These poor writers depicted themselves engaged in this heavy task: from people they knew or met, they gathered characteristics for their imaginary humans; from conversations, they pulled out thoughts that could be developed into themes; houses they had visited were relocated and refurnished; other writers were absorbed, assimilated for what they could unwittingly donate; from some less recognizable source the power of pure invention was mobilized, while over it all the artistic intelligence shaped an entity that would thrillingly exceed the sum even of these rich parts.
To Charlie it looked like very hard work. …’
  

Writing is the best sort of work, if you ask me. A week ago I started writing my new interactive novel, The Last Book in the World (um, hopefully not), and every time I sit down to write – in that precious hour before I fetch my daughter from daycare – I feel anew the rush of creating a whole world, of having the freedom to write what what I like. But it’s still work. I always have to force myself a little to sit and write (after all, it’s not compulsory, not like freelance journalism deadline) but I find it’s always worth the effort because of the way it makes me feel: mischievous, empowered, mysterious, interesting, interested, alive.

The trick to getting started? Start anywhere – at the end, at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or with a key scene that keeps squatting in your mental space. Go, go, go! Sorry to have to remind you, but one day you’ll be dead and you won’t be able to write. Nope, not at all. So sit at your PC every day. Make it a habit. And start writing anywhere.

Write the novel of your dreams with The Peacock Book Project: www.peacockproject.net