Quotes & Sayings About Author Craft

If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and author-craft are of small amount to that. — Thomas Carlyle

I write into an old book that smells of dust and whose pages are floppy with damp. Sometimes the ink splodges onto the paper, other times it will barely leave the nib of my pen. — Fennel Hudson

...I've never understood the logic that says a work doesn't need to be judged on the quality of its writing or characters simply because its genre. On the other hand, I've also never understood the logic of excusing a work from the need to tell a story worth telling about people worth knowing simply because the author writes pretty language or has some insights to offer. — Glen Hirshberg

People should know better than to be an ass in front of writers. We immortalize things. Lots of things. And we take liberties with character descriptions. — Michelle M. Pillow

Writing is a craft, being an author is work, and having readers and a following is a gift. — Michael J. Kannengieser

Today is the day that you create worlds, you change lives, you make a something, a someone, out of nothing.
Today is the day you become a writer. — Alessandra Torre

Be true to the writer within you; tell the story you're dying to tell in exactly the way you wish to tell it, and don't trust anyone who tries to sway you otherwise. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Writing is not necessarily in the planning but about learning the craft of letting the imagination change that plan — Mark Draycott Author

An author is like an incompetent bricklayer - doesn't use mortar and keeps rearranging the bricks until someone tells him to stop. — Chris Everheart

According to Wallace, the expectation that art amuses is a 'poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with,' since it places all of the power with the audience, sometimes breeding resentment on the part of the author. 'I can see it in myself and in other young writers,' he told McCaffery: 'this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.' Wallace expressed his 'hostility' by writing unwieldy sentences, refusing to fulfill readers' expectations, and 'bludgeoning the reader with data'
all strategies he used to wrestle back some of the power held by modern audiences. — Dorothy M. Kennedy

An author needs a lot more than one person to succumb to his literary seductive charms, but, like Saul, he must realize that he doesn't have to
and indeed cannot
capture the hearts of every possible reader out there. No matter who the writer, his ideal intended audience is only a small faction of all the living readers. Name the most widely read authors you can think of
from Shakespeare, Austen, and Dickens to Robert Waller, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling
and the immense majority of book-buyers out there actively decline to read them. — Thomas McCormack

You are not an "author," you are a writer. If your books are still selling like hotcakes ten years after your demise, THEN you're an author. — H.P. Oliver

Always remember that writing is an alliance between author and reader. With every line we put down on the page, we need to leave room for the reader's imagination and intellect. — Hal Zina Bennett

I'm not a - I'm beautiful, but I'm not working because I'm drop-dead gorgeous with a fantastic body. I think I continue to work because I'm good at my craft. I'm dedicated to bringing to life what the author is trying to portray. I try to make the producers cry and the crew laugh. — Adina Porter

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is sometimes the minor, not the major, characters in a novel who hold the author's affection longest. It may be that one loses affection for the major characters because they suck off so much energy as one pushes them through their lives. — Larry McMurtry

[N]ow that growing your own (food, dope, hair, younameit) is hip," wrote the author of an essay widely reprinted in alternative newspapers, "it's time to resurrect the Dope of the Depression - Homebrew." Homemade beer inspired "good vibrations" and a "pleasant high." Unlike the rest of "plastic, mass-produced shit" of modern America, homebrew represented "an exercise of craft" and empowered the "politically oriented" to retaliate against "Augustus [sic] Busch and the other fascists pigs who [were] ripping off the Common Man." "If you're looking for a cheap drunk," added the beer adviser, "go back to Gussie Busch. But if you dig the good vibes from using something you make yourself, plus an improvement in quality over the commercial shit," brew on, brothers and sisters, brew on. — Maureen Ogle

If you are serious, and you want to make a living as an author, then you need to hustle. Period. If you can't make that quality, then you need to concentrate on your craft and practice more.
One other thing, quality comes with practice. If you are prolific, then you become a better writer because you are writing. The more you do anything the better at it you will become. So in a way, quantity does add to quality. — Larry Correia

Readers have a loyalty that cannot be matched anywhere else in the creative arts, which explains why so many writers who have run out of gas can keep coasting anyway, propelled on to the bestseller lists by the magic words AUTHOR OF on the covers of their books. — Stephen King

What compels me to write now is the same as all those years ago. It is the love of writing and storytelling, driven by a desire to escape. — Fennel Hudson

A. I want my readers to remember a book of mine after they've turned the last page, partly so they will want to read more from me, but also because I want them to feel that reading it was well worth their time. I guess I want a book that I write to be more than entertainment that is enjoyable for the moment but forgettable as the months go by. I don't make a conscious effort to craft quotable prose when I write, but I do endeavor to pose questions and suggest insights that speak across the pages into a reader's life. For me, that translates into a good reason for having read the book. I always remember a book more fully and longer if I've been so emotionally tugged that I find myself highlighting phrases I don't want to forget. And I usually can't wait for that author's next book! Khaled Hosseini's books are always like that for me. Q. — Susan Meissner

You are an author! You will be a published author. Take pride in that, and present only your best work. Then, continue to improve, so your best gets even better. — Courage Knight

Above all, an author must write passionately and edit dispassionately. Poe's willingness to ruthlessly strip down and rebuild his old poems showed a dedication to craft that a professional must have, one that quickly wilts most amateurs. — Paul Collins

An author is similar to an actor. They play many characters in their lives - photographer, nurse, dancer, doctor, writer, etc. As an author, you have to learn your craft, know each and every element to become that character you're writing about to be able to live and breathe what they do. — Mischa Temaul

It's good to write badly. Things can only get better. — Alan Dapre

With ferocity and extraordinary craft, Lizzie Harris has made a book of poems that resonates far beyond the personal stories it tells. Stop Wanting reveals, in every lyric, its author's profound metaphorical gifts. In its ironies and intensities, it brings to mind a writer like the young Sylvia Plath, though what is startling about Harris' s work is the way it combines those gifts with a muted, deft self-awareness. Most of all, these are wonderfully shaped, powerful, and surprising poems-a startling debut. — Meghan O'Rourke

Authors - trust in your vision. — V.M. Sawh

Writing is something I want to explore. If I were to do it, I would want it to be not a book made by a YouTuber; I would really want to respect that craft of literature and just be an author. — Tyler Oakley

Remember if you write, write, write, you can never be wrong.
Stephanie Skeem Author of Flotsam — Stephanie Skeem

[Referring to passage by Alice Munro] Finally, the passage contradicts a form of bad advice often given young writers
namely, that the job of the author is to show, not tell. Needless to say, many great novelists combine "dramatic" showing with long sections of the flat-out authorial narration that is, I guess, what is meant by telling. And the warning against telling leads to a confusion that causes novice writers to think that everything should be acted out
don't tell us a character is happy, show us how she screams "yay" and jumps up and down for joy
when in fact the responsibility of showing should be assumed by the energetic and specific use of language. — Francine Prose

Where the writing takes place doesn't matter to a publisher, but it matters a great deal to the author. — Fennel Hudson

Whether you're an unpublished novelist or a sixteen-time New York Times bestselling author, you can always improve your craft. You can always become a better writer. — Robert Dugoni

The best advice I can give to any aspiring author is to write every single day. Work at the craft of writing. Take it seriously. — Andrea Davis Pinkney

I love my career. It is a career. A difficult one that takes many hours and total dedication to my craft. It is also what I was born to do
tell stories and entertain. — Michelle M. Pillow

Embrace your journey and those who come across your path. Be gracious in your endeavors. Focus on your craft. Those who support your dreams now and feel your sincere humility and gratitude will be there 20, 30, 40 years from now, padding your old bones and time worn, weary soul. — Ann Marie Frohoff