…And Now a Word from the Masters,
part II
By
Brad R. Cook
A
few weeks ago on The Writers’ Lens we featured quotes by some literary masters.
But I noticed something destrubing, everywhere I went most of the quotes were
from men. In fact, the article only has one quote by a woman. That was not my
intention, and given that I know so many amazing female writers, it was hard
to believe. So, this week, I thought I'd turn to the ladies, to find out what
they said about the craft of writing over the years.
Too
often do people only focus on the great literary men, but why, great women have
always populated the literary world. Who hasn’t heard of Mary Shelley, Jane
Austen, Emily Dickenson, or Agatha Christie, and women have only grown stronger
over the years with amazing writers like Nora Ephron, J.K. Rowling, and Maya
Angelou.
I
still have my Moleskine, only now it has a few more quotes added. I also hope
that the people who posts quotes daily to Facebook and Twitter will devote a
few to the women writers who have guided us throughout the years.
My
point hasn’t changed, we should always look back to those who came before, for
they walked this path first. They created the conventions we now follow. These
masters saw, contemplated, and worked through the same issues that writers
still face today, and luckily when they talked about them, someone sitting
nearby wrote it down.
The
next time you get stuck, disparaged, worn down by rejection, edits, or that
blog you have to write…check in with a master. Google a quote, head to Twitter,
or like me, just open your Moleskine and gleam a little wisdom from those
writers who already walked our path. Consider them the mentors that so few of
us ever find in this industry.
Since I sat down with New York Times bestselling author Angie
Fox, a woman worth looking up to, I thought I’d start with a quote from her.
If
you want to be a writer, be a reader. – Angie Fox
I also asked her for a few of her
favorite quotes, and I have to say, some of them are now my favorites.
You
can't edit a blank page. – Nora Roberts
Discipline
allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not
sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the
habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum
chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop
out of that bitch. – Lili St. Crow
Cram
your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never
stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other
people have made of it. If people give you a hard time and tell you to get your
nose out of a book, tell them you're working. Tell them it's research. Tell
them to pipe down and leave you alone. – Jennifer Weiner
Personally, I think so-called "common language" is more interesting
and apropos than "proper English"; it's passionate and powerful in
ways that "wherefore art thou ass and thy elbow" just isn't. – J.R.
Ward
Here are some I enjoy,
Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear. – Zora Neale Hurston
Also,
Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction.
It is fiction; it ain't true, folks. – Laurell
K. Hamilton
Now, the wisdom of great ladies
from yesterday and today, enjoy. I hope that one day they help.
Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. – Jane Austen
Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast
or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch. – Jane Austen
I'm just going to write because I cannot help it. – Charlotte Bronte
Who has words at the
right moment? – Charlotte
Bronte
A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to
live that day. – Emily
Dickinson
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can
ever warm me, I know that is poetry. – Emily
Dickinson
Saying nothing... sometimes says the most. – Emily Dickinson
My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my
writings. – Mary
Shelley
What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe
the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow. – Mary Shelley
Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you
will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed
by your actions. – Agatha
Christie
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New
York City is itself a detective story. – Agatha Christie
The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes. – Agatha Christie
I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because
where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry
and only half the royalties. – Agatha Christie
Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human. – Agatha Christie
A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must
draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out. – Virginia Woolf
Language is wine upon the lips. – Virginia Woolf
Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps,
but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is
scarcely perceptible. – Virginia Woolf
Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which
is most full of poetry. – Virginia Woolf
Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life,
every quality of his mind is written large in his works. – Virginia Woolf
When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they
are saying is there is too much reality in life. – Joyce Carol Oates
If food is poetry, is not poetry also food? – Joyce Carol Oates
If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence
and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework
you can still be writing, because you have that space. – Joyce Carol Oates
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have
the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply. – Joyce Carol Oates
You must do the things you think you cannot do. – Eleanor
Roosevelt
There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and
tragedy, humor and hurt. – Erma Bombeck
It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else. – Erma Bombeck
I was terrible at straight items. When I wrote obituaries, my
mother said the only thing I ever got them to do was die in alphabetical order. – Erma Bombeck
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human
voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. – Maya Angelou
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou
All great achievements require time. – Maya Angelou
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make
reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. – Maya Angelou
The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through
the brain and goes straight to the heart. – Maya Angelou
Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing. – Sylvia Plath
I try to write parts for women that are as complicated and
interesting as women actually are. – Nora Ephron
I don't care who you
are. When you sit down to write the first page of your screenplay, in your
head, you're also writing your Oscar acceptance speech. – Nora Ephron
Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire. – J. K. Rowling
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do ever - was
write novels. – J.
K. Rowling
I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's
totally for myself. I never in my wildest dreams expected this popularity. – J. K. Rowling
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you
live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case
you have failed by default. – J. K. Rowling
Never be ashamed! There's some who'll hold it against you, but
they're not worth bothering with. – J. K. Rowling
Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than
you do. – Laurell
K. Hamilton
One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a
magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane. – Laurell K.
Hamilton
If I'd been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit
wonder. – Laurell
K. Hamilton
Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't
want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as
need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character
development. – Laurell
K. Hamilton
I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you
don't believe in yourself, no one else will. – Laurell K.
Hamilton
My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my
friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your
characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people. – Laurell K.
Hamilton
I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write
hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print. – Laurell K.
Hamilton
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will
sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and
polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice. –
Octavia E. Butler
To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself. –
Anne Rice
That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see
what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist
and you want to go there. – Ann McCaffrey
Nobody who says, ‘I told you so’ has ever been, or
will ever be, a hero. – Ursula K Le Guin
Writing is a team sport. –
T.W. Fendley
So
what is your favorite authors’ quote? Let me know in the comments.
Brad
R. Cook is a historical fantasy author and President of St. Louis Writers
Guild. Please visit www.bradrcook.com
or follow me on Twitter @bradrcook
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