17 Writing Tips From Famous Authors

"This is how you do it: You sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard." - Neil Gaiman

"You can fix anything but a blank page." - Nora Roberts

Substitute damn every time you're inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be - Mark Twain

"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." - Elmore Leonard

"You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club." - JACK LONDON

"Use good grammar." - Mark Twain

"Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing." - Henry Miller.

"Use plain, simple, language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in." - Mark Twain

"You have to actually write. Daydreaming about the book you're going to write someday isn't writing. It's daydreaming. Open your word processor and start writing." - ANDY WEIR

"Never use a long word where a short one will do." - GEORGE ORWELL

"Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale." - Mark Twain

"Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance the action." -KURT VONNEGUT

"The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it." - Mark Twain

"Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write it. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window." -WILLIAM FAULKNER

"The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there." - Mark Twain

"The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones." - Mark Twain

"Ignore all proffered rules and create your own, suitable for what you want to say." -MICHAEL MOORCOCK