Top 10 Random Thoughts on Writing (with Help from the Experts)

1. “When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God’s business.” —Flannery O'Connor
   This quote is interesting, first of all, because it implies O’Connor viewed her writing as an evangelistic mission. On another level, it reminds us that once we’ve written something, let it stand for itself. Own and don’t apologize for it. It’s not up to us to defend it. Let it stand on its own literary feet.
   
   


2. “Writing doesn’t get easier with experience. The more you know, the harder it is to write.” —Tim O’Brien
   It would make sense that the more we study and discuss the craft of writing, the easier the process would become. Maybe instead it’s just that much more realization of how expansive the undertaking looms?
   
   


3. “I write what I would like to read.” —Kathleen Norris
   While the concept of motivation is always puzzling, maybe this thought says it best.
   
   


4. “Writing is just work — there’s no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes — it is still just work.” —Sinclair Lewis
   Talk about a letdown. I keep hoping to discover some secret loophole that will be my lazy shortcut to easy, life-changing literature. Somehow that idea that writing is just a lot of hard work seems to keep coming up.
   
   


5. “The desire to write grows with writing.” —Erasmus
   Or as Nike would say: Just do it.
   
   


6. “Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You only see as far as your headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E. L. Doctorow
   This is an interest quote to me because I’ve heard other writers urge that they never start a novel until they’ve already plotted the entire story down to the last sentence. Maybe it’s okay to take off writing and just see where you land, after all?
   
   


7. “My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.” —Anonymous
   I tell my students it’s not the “writing” (phraseology and mechanics) that is the hardest part, it’s the thinking. Who cares how cleverly you can word a sentence if you can’t generate the thought behind it.
   
   


8. “It’s not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them.” —T. S. Eliot
   One of the hardest lessons to convey to young artists, musicians, and writers.... I hope I have enough respect for the fundamentals and a secure enough grasp on them to support whatever creative artistic expressions I attempt.



9. “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” —Mark Twain
   It’s all in the details—what an art.
   
   


10. “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” —William Wordsworth
    May we always believe in what we write and let those passions drive our work—not anything else.