By Daniel Ford
We're spoiled around here with all the advice we get from both established writers and aspiring scribes like ourselves. Every now and again, we like to corral all our favorite tips and words of wisdom into one post and share it for an added boost of creative inspiration. Feel free to share your own literary encouragement in the comments section or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Keep writing!
“Get better, get better, and don’t think about anything other than getting better.”
“Keep writing. Just keep writing. No one else is going to do it for you.”
“Read a lot. Read, read, read. And then try to write something you would enjoy reading.”
Photo credit: Stephane de Bourgies
“Develop your voice through rewriting, but don’t destroy what’s actually working. ”
“Even if you think your writing is not good, just keep writing every day because you get better every time you do it.”
“Read like crazy. And write as much as you can. ”
Photo credit: Marion Ettlinger
“The difference between a writer and a wannabe writer is that, in the end, a writer can’t give up.”
“I believe that, whatever one accomplishes in life has little to do with age, and everything to do with attitude. If anything, long years of a rich life, as mine was and is, expands a writer’s possibilities. In the end it all resides in the mind and spirit.”
“First, read. Read all the time. Read widely. Second, embrace the process. Third, don’t give in to the self-doubt”
“Remember that everything is a work in progress. ”
Photo credit: Victoria McHugh Photography
“The most important thing is to find the subject that feels completely urgent to you. ”
“Take encouragement from everywhere you can get it. Enjoy the journey and do your best work.”
“If you want it bad enough, and you work long enough and hard enough, and you get up again and again and again after being knocked down, you can do this. ”
Photo credit: Harry Taylor
“The important thing is to keep a sense of perspective. It took my father’s death (I was 26 at the time) to motivate me to send out my work. His death taught me that time is short, and if there’s something you’ve always wanted to try, you better do it soon, because you may never get another chance.”
Photo credit: Lisa DeTullio Russell
“This is work. And it never stops. You have to be both humble and believe in yourself and your songs more than anything.”
Photo credit: Derek Cascio