Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Quitting

At some point in every writer's career, they ask themselves what they think they are doing. Why would they think someone else would want to read their work? What agent/editor is ever going to love this work even close to as much as the writer does?


How will they ever get published?

I've recently stumbled on some amazing responses to these questions. I'm going to list a couple of these below and hopefully they will help you as much as they have helped me.

~ Stephen King said: the first million words are practice.
That sounds daunting, but it's really not. All you have to do is keep writing.

~ Dr. Seuss said: Everything stinks until it's finished.

~ Will Rogers said: Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

~ Tony McGee Causey did a wonderful post on quitting on her blog. I recommend everyone go read it.


and to end on a happy note, Groucho Marx.

“Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.”

“Outside of a dog a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read.”


May we all resolve today not to quit until writing becomes something we don't love to do.

8 comments:

  1. must.stop.laughing.....

    Groucho Marx - now that's funny!

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  2. Love those quotes. It can be daunting to realize how much of your writing is practice. I'm hoping that my first 100,000 words will suffice as my practice, but maybe in a million words I'll look back and realize that's what it took!

    I remember reading about several writers who said their first book was practice. I felt like I could never write a whole book and then just think of it as practice, but now... well I get it now!

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  3. LOLOL! I love this! And I have so been there--but I think the greatest thing that has driven me on is the fact that I know the Lord asked me to write these books. That fact helps me so much, because I know it may not be in the time frame I think it should be, but I know they will be published. So even if I have a million gazillion lessons to learn first-I can't give up. I've always been more afraid of the Lord than anything else anyway. Jenni

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  4. Great quotes. And funny too. I think every writer has felt that way at one time or another. I'm constantly having to be talked off the ledge. But you're right, the bottom line is, if you love it, just keep writing.

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  5. Great quotes. Needed to hear all of them. Except for the whole petting sweaty things. I mean, yuck.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. That was me in the pic yesterday.

    (Today = Brand new day, new outlook. Great post!)

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  8. great quotes (I'm a bit of a quote hog myself).

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