18 Writing Tips From Famous Authors

Writing Tips #1
Tip#1, Just Start Writing
Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.
Louis L'Amour

Writing Tips#2
Tip#2, Dude, don't play smart.
Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
Kurt Vonnegut.

Writing Tips#3
Tip#3, Don't act like a KID.
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very', your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Mark Twain

Writing Tips#4
Tip#4, Be Original. Be Yourself.
Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there'll always be better writers than you and there'll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that, but you are the only you.
Neil Gaiman

Writing Tips#5
Tip#5, You are your own story.
Remember, when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
Neil Gaiman

Writing Tips #6
Tip#6, No one will support you, even your momma.
Notice how many of the Olympic atheletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? "She drove me to my practice at four in the morning," etc. Writing is not figure skating or skiing. Your mother will not make you a writer. My advice to any young person who wants to write is leave home.
Paul Theroux

Writing Tips #7
Tip#7, Read, Learn and Write
If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write. Simple as that.
Stephen King

Writing Tips #8
Tip#8, There is no absolute rule.
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
W. Somerset Maugham

Writing Tips #9
Tip#9, Writing is hard.
If writing seems hards, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.
Willim Zinesser

Writing Tips #10
Tip#10, Sh!t Happens.
The first draft of everything is shit.
Ernest Hemmingway

Writing Tips #11
Tip#11, Writing is Hard
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illnesss. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.
George Orwell

Writing Tips #12
Tip#12, No Inspiration. Go after it with a club, hockey stick or whatever you have.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London

Writing Tips #13
Tip#13, Finish what you started. And as fast as you can.
Get through a draft as quickly as possible. Hard to know the shape of the thing until you have a draft. Literally, when I wrote the last page of my first draft of Lincoln's Melachony I thought, Oh, shit, now I get the shape of this. But I had wasted years, literally years, writing and re-writing the first third of first half. The old writer's rule applies" Have the courage to write badly.
Joshua Wolf Shenk

Writing Tips #14
Tip#14, It's hard. But listen to your voice. And then it's easy.
Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this ten-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.
Anne Enright

Writing Tips #15
Tip#15, I know you have college degree.
Never use jagron words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
David Ogilvy

Writing Tips #16
Tip#16, There is a book to write.
Work on computer that is disconnected from the internet.
Zadie Smith

Writing Tips #17
Tip#17, Don't believe all this.
Don't take anyone's writing advice too seriously.
Lev Grossman

Tip#18, Read the Tip#1 Again, And Write The Story.
Add Your Tip Here.
The Next Famous Author

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