Writing only leads to more writing. ~ Sidonie
Gabrielle
There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer
than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I'm
greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed. ~John
Kenneth Galbraith
If you are pointing out one of the things a story is
about, then you are very probably right; if you are
pointing out the only thing a story is about you are very
probably wrong - even if you're the author. ~ Neil
Gaiman
When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what
life turns into: House burned down. Car stolen. Cat
exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a
pretty good day. ~ Neil Gaiman
You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from
being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only
difference between writers and other people is we notice
when we're doing it. ~ Neil Gaiman
Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or
doesn't work, they are almost always right. When they tell
you exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, they are almost
always wrong. ~ Neil Gaiman
Rule one of reading other people's stories is that
whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author
tells you that's the bit that wasn't made up. This is
because real life is under no obligation to be convincing.
~ Neil Gaiman
You need more than a beginning if you're going to start
a book. If all you have is a beginning, then once you've
written that beginning, you have nowhere to go. ~ Neil
Gaiman
Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that
say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent. ~
Neil Gaiman
The ideas aren't that important. Really they aren't.
Everyone's got an idea for a book, a movie, a story, a TV
series. ~ Neil Gaiman
Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it
honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that
there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. ~ Neil
Gaiman
You can take for granted that people know more or less
what a street, a shop, a beach, a sky, an oak tree look
like. Tell them what makes this one different. ~ Neil
Gaiman
All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you
write, in whatever genre or medium, your task is to make
things up convincingly and interestingly and new. ~ Neil
Gaiman
The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and
write, write, write. ~ Ernest Gaines
If you don't allow yourself the possibility of writing
something very, very bad, it would be hard to write
something very good. ~ Steven Galloway
Unfortunately many young writers are more concerned
with fame than with their own work... It's much more
important to write than to be written about. ~ Gabriel
Garcia Marquez
The writer who cares more about words than about story
- characters, action, setting, atmosphere - is unlikely to
create a vivid and continuous dream; he gets in his own way
too much; in his poetic drunkenness, he can't tell the cart
- and its cargo - from the horse. ~ John Gardner
There are techniques-hundreds of them-that, like
carpenter’s tricks, can be studied and taught. ~ John
Gardner
All writers, given adequate technique-technique that
communicates-can stir our interest in their special subject
matter. ~ John Gardner
The writer’s business is to make up convincing human
beings and create for them basic situations and actions by
means of which they come to know themselves and reveal
themselves to the reader. ~ John Gardner
What the beginning writer needs, discouraging as it may
be to hear, is not a set of rules but mastery-among other
things, mastery of the art of breaking so-called rules. ~
John Gardner
Mastery-not a full mental catalogue of the rules-must
be the writer’s goal. He must get the art of fiction, in
all its complexity-the whole tradition and all its
technical options-down through the wrinkles and tricky
wiring of his brain into his blood. ~ John Gardner
Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant,
like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves
steadily through time, like weather. ~ John
Gardner
Every writer at some point must go through an
analytical period, but in time he must get his own
characteristic solutions into his blood, so that when
confronted with a problem in a novel he’s writing he does
not consult his literary background. He feels his way to
the solution; rather than drawing back from the fictional
dream to look at what he’s doing, he solves the problem by
plunging deeper into the dream. ~ John Gardner
It’s the sheer act of writing, more than anything else,
that makes a writer. ~ John Gardner
Recognize that the art of writing is immensely more
difficult than the beginning writer may at first believe
but in the end can be mastered by anyone willing to do the
work. ~ John Gardner
The real importance of literary technique is that it
helps the writer check himself and zero in on truth. ~ John
Gardner
The tale writer simply walks past our objections,
granting that the events he is about to recount are
incredible but winning our suspensions of disbelief by the
confidence and authority of the narrator’s voice. ~ John
Gardner
I am speaking of works in which technique is adequate
to purpose. The artist who works at what he’s trying to say
so clumsily that he cannot get it said, and the artist
whose statement is so much like everybody else’s that
nobody finds it worth listening to-these are frauds,
apprentices, or fools. ~ John Gardner
Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea
in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan and a course
laid out. ~ John Gardner
In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but
inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants
something, goes after it despite opposition, perhaps
including his own doubts, and so arrives at a win, lose, or
draw. ~ John Gardner
We read five words on the first page of a really good
novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed
words on a page; we begin to see images. ~ John
Gardner
Make dialogue crackle with feelings not directly
expressed. ~ John Gardner
When you start, the world of publishing seems like a
great cathedral citadel of talent, resisting attempts to
let you inside. It isn't like that at all. It may be more
difficult now, and take longer than when I started to
write, but there's a great, empty warehouse out there
looking for simple talent. ~ Alan Garner
A notepad by the bedside accounts for half the earnings
of my livelihood. If it weren't for bedtime, half my novels
would still be stuck at dock. ~ Ever Garrison
I usually have poor to absent relations with editors
because they have a habit of desiring changes and I resist
changes. ~ William Gass
A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not
style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the
stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole
person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms. ~ Patricia
Lee Gauch
If you haven't got an idea, start a story anyway. You
can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to
the fourth page you will have an idea, and you'll only have
to throw away the first three pages. ~ William Campbell
Gault
Ecstatic is the Soul when Heart and Mind in unison
desires to Write, to write for Self, for Others and above
all for God, from whom this gift of writing indeed is. ~
Vanita George
Voice is one of the most elusive qualities in any
story. We recognize it when we hear it, but it’s hard
consciously to create an authentic voice. Somehow voice
seems to be the natural manifestation of all the narrative
decisions we’ve made so far. We discover it more than we
fabricate it. ~ Philip Gerard
The habits of craft, developed day in and day out over
a working lifetime, create moments of astonishment, sublime
and magical effects, precisely because the writer is not
thinking overtly about making art. ~ Philip Gerard
But a writing project begins not just in doubt but also
in faith-that if your passion is genuine, if you have
mastered the elements of your craft, in the act of writing
you will learn the rest of what you need to know in order
to do justice to your subject. ~Philip Gerard
You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it
in your head. ~ Philip Gerard
You have to roll up your sleeves and be a stonecutter
before you can become a sculptor - command of craft always
precedes art: apprentice, journeyman, master. ~ Philip
Gerard
We create an interior ‘movie’ in the reader’s head
through words on the page. ~ Philip Gerard
The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. . . .
The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. ~ Philip
Gerard
Storytelling is the art of unfolding knowledge in a way
that makes each piece contribute to a larger truth. ~
Philip Gerard
For the big stuff to work credibly, you’ve got to get
the little stuff absolutely right. ~ Philip Gerard
The only way to write a novel is to proceed as if you
had all the time in the world. ~ Philip Gerard
Voice really depends on the answer to the question, Who
is telling this story? . . . That will color your
diction-and determine your metaphors, your sensibility. ~
Philip Gerard
It’s not enough simply to record the way people
actually talk. The dialogue must be concentrated, shaped,
dramatically moving, in a way that real-life conversation
seldom is. ~ Philip Gerard
There is more pleasure to building castles in the air
than on the ground. ~ Edward Gibbon
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the
habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I
resolved to write a book. ~ Edward Gibbon
You must learn to overcome your very natural and
appropriate revulsion for your own work. ~ William
Gibson
Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature. ~
Andre Gide
What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what
prepares it, only what destroys it can be told. ~ André
Gide
Nouns and verbs are almost pure metal; adjectives are
cheaper ore. ~ Marie Gilchrist
To gain your own voice, forget about having it heard.
Become a saint of your own province and your own
consciousness. ~ Allen Ginsberg
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be
first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a
noble style, let him first possess a noble soul. ~ Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not
enough; we must do. ~ Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of
things which matter least. ~ Johann Wolfgang
Goethe
Every author in some degree portrays himself in his
works, even if it be against his will. ~ Johann Wolfgang
Von Goethe
He who does not expect a million readers should not
write a line. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Story is to human beings what the pearl is to the
oyster. ~ Joseph Gold
If you read good books, when you write, good books will
come out of you. ~ Natalie Goldberg
Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have
not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split
open. ~ Natalie Goldberg
Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there
is an aching in you to speak. ~ Natalie Goldberg
That's very nice if they want to publish you, but don't
pay too much attention to it. It will toss you away. Just
continue to write. ~ Natalie Goldberg
One of the easiest things in the world is not to
write... If it were easy, everyone would do it. ~ William
Goldman
As difficult as it is for a writer to find a
publisher--admittedly a daunting task--it is twice as
difficult for a publisher to sort through the chaff, select
the wheat, and profitably publish a worthy list. ~ Olivia
Goldsmith
What we want is a story that starts with an earthquake
and builds to a climax. ~ Samuel Goldwyn
Critics are by no means the end of the law. Do not
think all is over with you because you articles are
rejected. It may be that the editor has his drawer full, or
that he does not know enough to appreciate you, or you have
not gained a reputation, or he is not in a mood to be
pleased. A critic's judgment is like that of any
intelligent person. If he has experience, he is capable of
judging whether a book will sell. That is all. ~ Lavina
Goodell
One of the least impressive liberties is the liberty to
starve. This particular liberty is freely accorded to
authors. ~ Lord Goodman
Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole
life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area ~
Nadine Gordimer
You must write for children the same way you write for
adults, only better ~ Maxim Gorky
Quitters don't win and winners don't quit. ~ Elliot
Gould
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the
other one. ~Baltasar Gracián
Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly
with every new assignment. ~Baltasar Gracián
By making writing a part of your daily routine--just
like brushing your teeth--you'll discipline yourself to
work as a writer instead of a hobbyist who only writes when
there's some fun to be had. ~ Theresa Grant
In brief, I spend half my time trying to learn the
secrets of other writers - to apply them to the expression
of my own thoughts. ~ Shirley Ann Grau
There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry
in money either. ~ Robert Graves
If you tell me, it's an essay. If you show me, it's a
story. ~ Barbara Greene
Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how
all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to
escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which
is inherent in a human situation. ~ Graham Greene
Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and
satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have to arouse
your reader's desire to know what happens, to unravel the
mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it, keep
it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a
time, as your story goes on. That's called suspense. It can
bring desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good
position to bring off a wonderful climax. ~ Colin
Greenland
The writer's genetic inheritance and her or his
experiences shape the writer into a unique individual, and
it is this uniqueness that is the writer's only stuff for
sale. ~ James Gunn
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