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I hope you find these thoughts inspirational, but do, eventually, get back to work on your own writing project, won’t you?

See my previous post for inspirational quotes to get you through the initial Phase 1: Gathering and Phase 2: Planning of  your writing project.

Phase 3: Rough Drafting

“Don’t get it right, just get it written.” — James Thurber

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.” — Julia Child

“I regard the piece of paper as my employer. I have to fill that piece of paper. How I feel—whether it is difficult or not, whether I am stuck or not—is irrelevant. What the difficulties are is irrelevant. They are my problem and I will solve it.” — Ayn Rand

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” — Douglas Adams

“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” — Thomas Mann

“Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It’s like passing around samples of sputum.” — Vladimir Nabokov

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee

“Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.” — Mickey Spillane

“There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn’t because the book is not there and worth being written—it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself.” — Mark Twain

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill

“This is the end, my friend. The end.” — Jim Morrison

“Success is a stack of pages, each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.” — Tom Clancy

Phase 4: Revising

“Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.” — Michael Crichton

“Go some distance away because the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, so a lack of harmony of proportion is rapidly seen.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Don’t pay any attention to the critics—don’t even ignore them.” — Samuel Goldwyn

“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

“I don’t trust anyone—including myself.” — Joseph Stalin

“Listen, then make up your own mind.” — Gay Talese

“I’ve had books that didn’t work out. I had to stop writing them. I just abandoned them. It was depressing, but it wasn’t the end of the world. When it really isn’t working, and you’ve been bashing yourself against the wall, it’s kind of a relief. Sometimes you bash yourself against the wall and you get through it. But sometimes the wall is just a wall. There’s nothing to be done but go somewhere else.” — Margaret Atwood

“If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake.” — Confucius

“I write a book at least three times—once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say.” — Bernard Malamud

“The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time.” — Henry Ford

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” — Michelangelo

“First, cut all the wisdom; then cut all the adjectives.” — Paddy Chayefsky

“The writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.
That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.” — Dr. Seuss

“The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.” — Isaac Bashevis Singer

“I wouldn’t say I have a talent that’s special. I have an unusual kind of stamina. I can rewrite sentences over and over again, and I do.” — John Irving

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” — Stephen King

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” — Scott Adams

“The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug.” — Mark Twain

“The high note is not the only thing.” — Placido Domingo

“Too much gibble-gabble. Show the action, for Chrissakes, don’t describe it! It’s a motion picture you’re making, not a goddamned radio show. A motion picture with emotion, so let your characters speak from their hearts.” — Sam Fuller

“I can’t write five words but that I can change seven.” — Dorothy Parker

Phase 5: Letting Go

“Books are never finished, they are merely abandoned.” — Oscar Wilde

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” — W.C. Fields

“Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.” — Truman Capote

“Finishing races is important, but racing is more important.” — Dale Earnhardt

“You never know how tough you are until somebody knocks you down and you decide whether you wanna get yourself up or not.” — Sugar Ray Robinson

“Go on writing plays, my boy. One of these days one of these London producers will go into his office and say to his secretary, ‘Is there a play from Shaw this morning?’ and when she says, ‘No,’ he will say, ‘Well, then we’ll have to start on the rubbish.’ And that’s your chance.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.” — Frank Zappa

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” — Andy Warhol

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These quotes are excerpted from “How To Be A Writer Who Writes” by Greg Miller.

Get the book here (only $6.99).