I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
– Douglas Adams
OK, so the first quote, above, is not so much an inspirational quote as much as it is a highly amusing one. The following are some great lines and advice that I have come across on my procrastination occasions. I’m sure that there are several other wise words from esteemed authors of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy vein. If you have any, please add them to the comments, it would be great to hear from you. I have taken the liberty of including E.B. White in the list, because anyone who writes about a talking mouse is writing in the realm of fantasy…
1. 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
2. The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. – Ursula K. Le Guin
3. There are two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail. The gardeners just dig a hole and plant the seed and see what comes up. – George R.R. Martin
4. Don’t be afraid to discard work you know isn’t up to standard. Don’t save junk, just because it took you a long time to write it. – David Eddings
5. No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing. – E.B. White
6. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very;” otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. – C.S. Lewis
Read. Read. Read.
7. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. – Stephen King
8. The most important thing for any aspiring writer, is to read! And not just the sort of thing you’re trying to write, be that fantasy, SF, comic books, whatever. You need to read everything. – George R.R. Martin
On Characterisation
9. Get inside their skin. That includes even the ones who are complete bastards, nasty, twisted, deeply flawed human beings with serious psychological problems. Even them. – George R.R. Martin
10. I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. – Stephen King
11. Listen to the way people talk. If your characters sound real the rest is easy. – David Eddings
12. First, find out what your hero wants. Then just follow him. – Ray Bradbury
13. If you want to be a writer, you must do two things about all others: read a lot and write a lot…reading is the creative centre of a writer’s life…you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. – Stephen King
On Inspiration:
14. Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. – Stephen King
15. Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. – Orson Scott Card
16. Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way. – Ray Bradbury
Perseverance: Get Started and Keep Going
17. Keep working. Keep trying. Keep believing. You still might not make it, but at least you gave it your best shot. If you don’t have calluses on your soul, this isn’t for you. Take up knitting instead. – David Eddings
18. There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write. – Terry Pratchett
19. It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish. – J.R.R. Tolkien
20. You fail only if you stop writing. – Ray Bradbury