thoughts on writing

well-arranged words rearrange reality.

Visakan Veerasamy • Tweet

Writing is not about getting letters on a page. It’s not about getting done with text. It’s finding a clear and simple expression for what we feel, mean, and want to express

One-thousand or two-thousand words every day for the next twenty years. At the start, you might shoot for one short story a week, fifty-two stories a year, for five years. You will have to write and put away or burn a lot of material before you are comfortable in this medium. You might as well start now and get the necessary work done.

Ray Bradbury • Zen in the Art of Writing

We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know.

Stephen King • On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (A Memoir of the Craft (Reissue))

My product won’t write sentences for you. The slow process of writing is what clarifies thought, shapes identity, and cultivates a lens to the world. Writing is the whole point; it isn’t a chore to optimize, it’s an infinite game.

Michael Dean • Mega-Update

Writing: Assuming you understand the core principles of writing and the basics of grammar, what determines your ability to write well more than anything else is writing a lot. Once you reach the threshold of writing a decent sentence, the thing that leads to success is writing more.

James Clear • How Smart Do You Have to Be to Succeed?

Without a first draft, there would be no novel, so this is without a doubt the most important accomplishment of the writer.

Walter Mosley • This Year You Write Your Novel

‘Blog posts’ might be the answer. But I have read blogs for many years and most blog posts are the triumph of the hare over the tortoise. They are meant to be read by a few people on a weekday in 200420ya and never again, and are quickly⁠ ⁠abandoned—and perhaps as Assange says, not a moment too soon. (But isn’t that sad? Isn’t it a terrible ROI⁠... See more