A little while ago we'd shared strange yet effective habits of successful writers, where you will find that when it comes to writing everyone has his/her own routine. Also, when it comes to giving tips for writing, everyone has a different perspective, a different outlook towards the creative process called writing.

Sometimes more than writing, it's the process of finding inspiration that haunts writers, Ernest Hemingway once said that as a novelist, most frightening thing for him is 'A blank sheet of paper'.

Therefore, we decided that who better than famous authors themselves sharing tips and tricks on writing, finding inspiration, getting published and giving some words of wisdom. You will find golden words from authors who have penned some of the bestselling literature in the history. Learn & enjoy!


Inspiration:

"You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -Jack London

"You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write." -Saul Bellow

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." - E.L. Doctorow

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway


Beginners:

"Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished,  you are always surprised." -John Steinbeck

"For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts." -Anne Lamott

"Pay for an editor. Not just to fix the typos, but to actually make your ramblings into something that people will choose to read." -Seth Godin

"Don’t do vampires, wizards or ghosts because they’re in fashion. Jane Austen wrote about family life in a small village and gave us six of the greatest novels ever written." -Jeffery Archer

"As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out." – Mark Twain

"It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly." – C. J. Cherryh.

"I find one system that works very well with me is to sit at the typewriter and have a pad on my desk, on which I write out the next bit of the story, maybe a bit of dialogue or description by hand, and then transfer it to the machine. But I make several drafts. The stuff I do on the typewriter isn’t the final version. I mess it about a lot with ink, and put in bits and alter adjectives and things, and then make a fair copy of it. The great thing I like working on the typewriter. It rather inspires me." -P.G. Woodhouse


Characters & Plot:

"Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." -Kurt Vonnegut

"Usually, when people get to the end of a chapter, they close the book and go to sleep. I deliberately write a book so when the reader gets to the end of the chapter, he or she must turn one more page. When people tell me I’ve kept them up all night, I feel like I’ve succeeded." – Sidney Sheldon


Narration: 

"I am always pretending that I'm sitting across from somebody. I'm telling a story, and I don't want them to get up until it's finished." -James Patterson

"If you are using dialogue - say it out aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech." -John Steinback

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -Anton Chekhov

"Caress the detail, the divine detail." -Vladimir Nabokov

"The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it." – Mark Twain

"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." -Elmore Leonard


Words of wisdom: 

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip." -Elmore Leonard

"If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." -Stephen King

"Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia." -Kurt Vonnegut

"Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are." – Rod Serling

"If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talking about writing or themselves." -Lillian Hellman

You may also like to read: 09 Fun Websites For Writing Exercises

Image courtesy

You can also download a free pdf version of this article.