Great Writing Quotes by Author Michael Connelly

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.

At newspapers, the idea of having writer’s block would be considered a joke.

Writing comes down to momentum. It’s like surfing—getting up on the board and staying up as long as you can.

The most important thing is character. Nothing is more fascinating than human nature and how people react.

I began to realize that if one publisher didn’t like what I wrote, another one would, and that allowed me a kind of freedom I’d not felt up to that point.

Write every day to keep a story spinning in your head.

When I start a draft, I write every day so the story never leaves my head. And it can leave your head if you take even a weekend off.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

A Story is Like a Child – Though It Arises from Us, It is Its Own Being – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Aug. 20, 2024

Writing Motivation: A Story is Like a Child – Though It Arises from Us, It is Its Own Being
If you’ve ever been a parent or just an astute observer of your niece or nephew, you’ve probably been struck by how much a child is like his or her father and mother. At the same time, though they share physical traits, interests and patterns of behavior, the child is unique and his or her person. Likewise, your story is a creation and reflection of you…yet, it is a creature all its own, too. READ MORE

Writing Tips: How to Create Your Story’s Characters
Successful stories require characters who face some challenge or conflict. While coming up with such story ideas is easy enough, many writers struggle with ensuring their characters are interesting so the reader will want to follow them on their journey. My book Create Your Story’s Characters is all about making that process easier for writers. It examines how characters fit among a story’s basic elements then discusses the different kinds of characters. Next, it hones in on those types of characters that make great protagonists – three-dimensional, dynamic characters who gradually grow so that by the end of the story they are better, wiser people who can overcome the challenge they face. Lastly, it looks at some common pitfalls that beginning authors stumble into when creating characters. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Show Don’t Tell Characters’ Emotional States
One area of exposition that novice writers often overlook is emotional states during character descriptions. Describing a character’s gestures and body movements allows the reader to infer that emotional state while adding a level of detail to the text that helps the reader better imagine the scene and become more engaged in the story. So rather than writing They grew sad upon hearing the news, instead show their sadness with They hung their heads low upon hearing the news. READ MORE

Writing Course: Overcoming Writer’s Block
Writer’s block is quite real. There are many reasons people get writer’s block. This course helps you understand the cause of your writer’s block then goes into detail on strategies for overcoming each one. Length of course: 12 lesson readings and quizzes 2-3 hours. Homework is up to the student. CHECK IT OUT

Self-Publishing Tip: How to Get Rid of Word’s Proofreading Marks
Among the most annoying features of Microsoft Word’s Track Changes program is that every time you reopen a file, the corrections show up. To not see the corrections, you have to toggle the “Display for Review” setting to “No Markup.” How do you fix this? READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Sell Books by Posting at High-Traffic Blogs
One great way to sell books online – especially if you write nonfiction – is by commenting on posts at high-traffic blogs related to your book’s topic. That’s because you’re targeting an audience that is highly interested in the topics you’ve written about. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: How to Sell Your Book with Amazon Ads
Most indie authors are nervous about buying ads for their books and for good reason. They wonder if the ads really will work or if it’s just dumping money into a bottomless hole. They even have been told not to buy ads. I used to think that way too. Then I began to hear from a small number of authors that they actually were having good luck with Amazon ads. A lot of tweaking was necessary, but eventually they figured out a formula that worked. So I gave it a try. Within weeks, I was earning twice as much as I spent on ads, and my sales tripled. My book Sell Your Book with Amazon Ads is all about how the ad system works, how to build an ad, how to read Amazon’s ad reports, how to optimize your ad, and more. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “The Sound of the Wind in the Leaves” by Jana Meador
A few years ago, I edited this historical fiction novel, and the power of its writing has stuck with me ever since. Jana Meador’s The Sound of the Wind in the Leaves begins in 1916 when seventeen-year-old Eva leaves her small Bohemian village to work on an English estate, setting in motion the incredible story of one family’s struggle to ensure their brick building business and household survive the Great Depression, Nazi occupation, and a communist takeover. Across three generations, they discover that their will is indomitable, so long as they retain their traditions, remain steadfast in their love for one another, and never let go of their values…but the inner calls to do so – like the sound of the wind in the leaves – are not always easy to hear amid the world’s drumbeats of greed and war. CHECK IT OUT

$25 Off Your Next Edit!
For being a newsletter subscriber, please take $25 off your next edit with Inventing Reality Editing Service. When scheduling your edit, be sure to mention you’re a subscriber and give the email where you received this newsletter. Minimum order of $200. Offer expires Aug. 27, 2024. SCHEDULE EDIT

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of both aspiring and published writers and offers a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of a novel, the Storytelling 101 Quick Read series, four children’s books, more than 25 bestselling hiking guidebooks, and even a book of poetry. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Great Writing Quotes by Author Enid Bagnold

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.

I am not a born writer, but I was born a writer.

There are no prizes for being an artist. You can’t have it. You suffer for your art, but you enjoy the suffering.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

A collection of six 'Storytelling 101' guidebooks by Rob Bignell, featuring varying colors and titles, including topics like writing, outlining, and formatting stories.

Great Writing Quotes by Author Simone de Beauvoir

A day in which I don’t write leaves a taste of ashes.

Writing is a trade … which is learned by writing.

The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels.

I willingly trust myself to chance. I let my thoughts wander, I digress, not only sitting at my work, but all day long, all night even. It often happens that a sentence suddenly runs through my head before I go to bed, or when I am unable to sleep, and I get up again and write it down.

Only a woman can write what it is to feel as a woman, to be a woman. What is very troubling is that people who have tried to write literature, even, for example, proletarian writers, seem to write within the norms of the dominant class.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

A collection of six 'Storytelling 101' guidebooks by Rob Bignell, featuring varying colors and titles, including topics like writing, outlining, and formatting stories.

Great Writing Quotes by Author Jonathan Swift

Satire is a sort of mirror glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

Then, rising with Aurora’s light, The Muse invoked, sit down to write; Blot out, correct, insert, refine, Enlarge, diminish, interline.

What poet would not grieve to see His brother write as well as he? But rather than they should excel, He’d wish his rivals all in Hell.

The most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

A collection of six 'Storytelling 101' guidebooks by Rob Bignell, featuring varying colors and titles, including topics like writing, outlining, and formatting stories.

Your Unread Story is Like a Gold Nugget Buried in a Mountain

You’ve spent a year writing your book, spent money on an editor to proofread it and a designer to create a book cover, then spent a week or two taking it through the self-publishing process. And now, after all of that hard work, your book – your labor of love – is available for purchase with its own page on Amazon.com and can be purchased at your local mom and pop bookstore.

All you have to do now is sit back and wait for fame and fortune to roll in.

Unfortunately, you may be waiting a very long time.

It’s the rare book that somehow goes viral and captures the public’s attention and admiration all on its own. Indeed, your book is buried in the mountain of more than 900 other books that are published daily (in just the United States alone) not to mention all that have been published before and will come in the years ahead. No matter how good yours is, the odds of it even being noticed are nil at best.

The reality is that indie authors and those who self-publish need to promote their own books.

For most authors, the idea of promoting their book is anathema. “Promoting,” to many writers, means using guilt and fear to convince people to buy a product. Even for those authors who don’t hold such a view, they probably never studied marketing and have no idea of how to begin such an effort.

But unless you’re satisfied with your book languishing in anonymity, you need to market it. You’ll need to send press releases to media outlets. You’ll need a website and probably a blog to inform people about your book. You’ll need to do some book signings, some book readings, maybe some radio interviews. You may need to make some business cards and even advertise.

You’ll need to dynamite a tunnel through the mountain of published books so that readers can see your gold nugget. Your marketing effort is that tunnel to your book.

Now go on, set the blasting cap and detonator.

•How do you feel about marketing your book? Why do you hold this view? What are your concerns about spending time promoting your book?

•Marketing a book often involves setting up a platform – such as a website, blog, social media sites (including Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest) – to let others know about your title. Write a list of the various ways you might reach potential readers of your book.

•You’ll also want to promote your book by getting in front of people, such as at a book reading or a book signing. Are you comfortable speaking in front of others? If not, what can you do to limit your anxiety ahead of such an event?

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks: