If the greatest writers could give you writing advice, what would it be?
Writing is something we are passionate about here at “The People’s Friend”. Bringing good writing to our readers is the daily joy of the Fiction team, and discovering new writing talent makes the whole team sing!
As regular readers will know, we give out regular writing advice, and will continue to do so.
But what if the greatest writers in the world could give you some tips?
What would they be?
“For my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.”
Jane Austen
“Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself . . .”
Harper Lee
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Toni Morrison
“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”
Neil Gaiman
“. . . 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
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
Stephen King
“You can make anything by writing.”
C.S. Lewis
“Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.”
John Updike
“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”
Frank Herbert
“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read”
Margaret Atwood
Find more writing advice in our Writing Tools section.
Fiction Ed Lucy also provides weekly Story Starters, to give you that first push! Click here to find one suitable for you.
*This post was originally published on ShortList magazine where they gave you 50 Great writing quotes! We picked the top ten suitable for “Friend” writers.
Karlie Simmonds Karlie has worked in Digital Media for over 10 years, she is passionate about health and wellbeing and lives in Edinburgh with her partner, children, and Pug, Poppy.
