Inspirational Quotes for Writers

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” - Richard Bach

“More people have talent than discipline. That’s why discipline pays better.” – Mike Price

“The cheapest and usually the quickest way to attain any desire is to pay the full price. Do the work.”

“If what you have done yesterday still seems big to you, then you have not done anything much today.”

“There is effort involved in making any dream come true. Dreams are powerful, but only when they’re reinforced by research, study and effort.”

“If you do the work, you’ll reach your goals.”

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”

“You cannot afford to doubt yourself.”

“Life is short, misery sure, mortality certain. But on the way, in your work, why not carry those two inflated pig-bladders labelled ‘Zest’ and ‘Gusto’.” – Ray Bradbury

“If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.”

“Work * Relaxation * Don’t think * Further relaxation”

“Create a schedule and stick to it. 1000 or 2000 words everyday for the next 20 years.”

“Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come.”

“The artist learns what to leave out.”

- All by Ray Bradbury

Stop and Think: What are you succeeding in?

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." – Francis Chan

How true! For the greater part of my writing career, I have been succeeding in things that don’t really matter.

When I set out towards becoming a professional writer, I started with churning out stories and poetry and they were being published too. Slowly, the focus shifted to making money and I did any writing that got payment. Fiction and poetry got backstage and I was writing copy, SOP, College essays, articles, web content, ghost-written books, etc. All this was easier to sell and I was coolly making around 50000 bucks a month from home, along with caring for my baby.

Then, I got pregnant again and wanted to take a sabbatical. The peace and quiet that filled me had got me thinking. ‘I had succeeded but this was not what I wanted to succeed in!’

Thankfully, I had woken up. The money box no longer had coins clanking into it. Not because fiction writers are not paid or because poets are set for financial failure but because,

1) I had no one to report to.
2) I had no deadlines
3) I had no word count to complete in a day
4) I was damn lazy

If I had churned out fiction at the same speed rate and submitted them around, I am sure I would have earned as much money. So the fault lies with me. I need to buckle up and start working!

NaNo Madness: I did it!

I am sure my neighbours must have been a tad bit irritated as I blared out the horns and turned on the music yesterday. My husband had mixed my favourite drink – Pinnacolada (without alcohol, it just does not taste the same!) – He said I was already in delirium and refused to add a bit of vodka to it. I had done it. I have cracked the NaNoWriMo. As I typed in around 50100 words and had it validated too , I went around the house dancing with joy. I felt a bit like Archimedes when he shouted ‘Eureka! Eureka!’ from his bathtub. Yes, I had done it! It feels so nice when you achieve something. The feeling is incomparable when you know that you get nothing in return but just the joy of completing a first draft. However, this time, without the knowledge of NaNoWriMo organisers, I snuck something more away from the programme too –

• I made so many writing buddies that I never even knew existed before the 1st of November 2013. And these great folks pushed me, prodded me and poked me to write like I have never written before. These selfless souls sacrificed so much time making sure that I wrote without browsing (the Facebook NaNoWriMo Page was exempted) and sat up in the night sprinting with me. Thank you, folks. I couldn’t have done it without you!

• I was this lazy writer who wrote as and when the muse struck her. I know that is not the way for a writer to work but I was too lazy to care. NaNoWriMo, you taught me to just sit and write whatever I wanted and permitted me to write even when my characters have no names, when there is no research done, when I have no timeline and without any punctuations too. (I put in the fullstops or even I wouldn’t be able to read it again.)

• I have never ever written more than 2000 words on any day. I broke all record today (the 30th of November) when I wrote 12000 words in a single day. It was exhausting, my finger swelled a bit but I survived. I realized if I learnt to type and did these things more often, my hand might actually get used to this.

• And most important of all, it was the first time I had typed out a first draft. Till date, I had always written my first draft by longhand. This was the first time I had done this and I was not too disappointed with the result. I might do it again!

NaNo does not promise any rewards at the end but there is a lot of joy and happiness waiting for you at the end. And most important of all, you realize you can put up your collar and call yourself a writer!