This week, I have been struggling to get motivated. If any of you are the same, here are some quotes from famous writers on what inspires them and motivates them to sit in that chair day after day. I hope it helps to know that the ones whose names ring out long after their bodies are gone, had the same struggles as us.
Write what you want to write
Woolf’s advice is to write like nobody is going to read it. She takes a poor view of books written for mass markets. Kafka agrees, stating the world needs to read honest accounts.
“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
—Virginia Woolf
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
– Franz Kafka
“If it adapts itself to what the majority of our society wants, art will be meaningless recreation” – Albert Camus
Dig deep in your own experiences.
“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” – Virginia Woolf
Don’t think about the money.
Don’t be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value.” – Arthur Miller
Art is finding meaning in life.
“A man’s life is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.” – Albert Camus
“An awful lot of people feel that they’re treading water — that if they vanished in smoke, it wouldn’t mean anything at all in this world. And that’s a despairing and destructive feeling. It’ll kill you.” – Arthur Miller
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” – George Orwell
Put in the hard work
“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.” —Madeleine L’Engle
“There is no such thing as great talent without great willpower.” – Honore de Balzac
When you’re stuck
Atwood advocates to try to write through it. But if that fails, she would simply can the book and write something else.
“I mean, sometimes you bash yourself against the wall and you get through it. But sometimes the wall is just a wall. There’s nothing to be done but go somewhere else.” – Margaret Atwood
Orson Scott Card thinks a good re-write is the answer.
“Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writer’s block is never solved by forcing oneself to “write through it,” because you haven’t solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still won’t work – for you or for the reader.” – Orson Scott Card
Mantel advocates making space for the words to flow.
“If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don’t just stick there scowling at the problem. But don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people’s words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.” – Hilary Mantel
Send great ideas out into the world
“You can’t write novels without a touch of paranoia. I’m paranoid as an act of good citizenship, concerned about what the powerful people are up to.” – Kurt Vonnegut
“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better” – J K Rowling
I hope you have enjoyed some words of wisdom from famous writers. It is so good to know that they had to remind themselves that art is work. Come on writers, let’s send some important words out into the world.