7 Best Quotes about Writing to Help You Put Pen to Paper ...

1. The Importance of Experience

I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Morpurgo many moons ago when I worked for a children's publishing company. Many will know him for War Horse and Private Peaceful, which are fabulous books set in World War One and which have also been made into movies. In an interview, Michael Morpurgo once spoke about the importance of experience in life in order to be a good writer. He said that you need to read, travel and speak to people. In short, his advice was to literally "drink the world into your head" as this will give you the brain fuel and inspiration you need to be a great writer. This is one of my favorite quotes about writing.

2. Tell Your Story

I love Maya Angelou. She is a fabulous writer and realizes the importance of telling a story. A story can whir around your head like an ear worm and you just know that you have to tell it. It can be frustrating as you see the characters and hear their conversations in your head. When she said "there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you" she was right. Tell the story that keeps playing in your head like a broken record. Your head will thank you for it!

3. First Drafts

Any writer will know that sometimes, we can agonize so much about getting it right that it can get in the way of getting it written. Ernest Hemmingway was another fabulous writer and eloquently reminds us that "The first draft of anything is s*!#t." It's important to remember when writing, just to get your thoughts and feelings down on paper and worry about the polishing later, otherwise you can procrastinate for days whilst the paper or screen remains blank. Just fill it with words and worry about 'decorating' it later, if you need to.

4. Simple Words

When we're writing, we can agonize about sounding clever or erudite but sometimes words can actually get in the way. Jack Kerouac, author of the cult classic On The Road said "one day I will find the right words and they will be simple". It is more important to tell the story than it is to litter it with fancy words and convoluted sentence structures. Simply tell the story, simply!

5. Self Doubt

Sylvia Plath has left a literary legacy behind with her beautiful and moving poetry and her fabulous novel,The Bell Jar. Whether you're a writer or indeed anyone who undertakes creative ventures and hobbies in their lives, self doubt can be debilitating but it's something we're all guilty of and sometimes it gives us the impetus to be better. However, in the words of Sylvia Plath, "the worst enemy to creativity is self doubt." Don't let doubt get in your way of creating that masterpiece. Instead, use it to your advantage.

6. Living It

When you're writing, you're re-living moments and that's sometimes the agony and the ecstasy of the writing experience. No matter what we write, we always interweave a little of ourselves and our personal experience into the writing, inadvertently bleeding a little of our souls into the narrative. I love this quote by Anais Nin, which highlights the fact that writing is sometimes re-living. She said "we write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect". That is often the beauty of writing, looking back and re-living the experience.

7. Telling the Truth

I was a huge fan of Stephen King as I was growing up and I'll never forget my English teacher lambasting me for reading his works, as she deemed them 'second rate' literature. According to her, his novels paled in comparison to the 'premier division' likes of the Bronte sisters and Dickens. I didn't listen and read his works voraciously and I still believe that we shouldn't say that any literary work is more worthy than another. If you like it, read it! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Stephen King is also someone who likes to write about writing and he once described fiction as the "truth inside the lie". Use writing to tell your truth.

These are some of my favorite quotes about writing and there are many others. Which are yours and more importantly, which ones help you to put pen to paper?