In order to prepare for NaNoWriMo I need to feel inspired. So, I thought I would share some quotes that inspire me to be a better writer.
"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they shave have behaved better." - Anne Lamott, from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
That quote reminds me that my writing is mine, my life is mine, and I should write about my experiences no matter how other people feel about them.
You are a writer even if you haven't been published.
"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt." - Sylvia Plath, from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath.
Again, write for you and from your own experience. I find that writing is a whole lot easier when I do it with only my expectations in mind.
"Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open." - Natalie Goldberg, from Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.
Man, when it comes to this quote I feel like the writers of The Walking Dead live by it and you should too. Let yourself take a plot too far, take an idea too far, go dark, just do it. You may end up hating what you write but it will cathartic.
"I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I am afraid of." -Joss Whedon
Why do you write? Find that out if you can and run with it.
Writing isn't rainbows and butterflies and it can break you, but it can also save you.
"If it's still in your mind, it is worth the risk." - Paulo Coelho
If you can't shake an idea or character or image, you should write about it.
"If I waited for perfection I would never write a word." - Margaret Atwood
No story ever started off perfect and ready to publish. I mean, that is what makes National Novel Writing Month so great, it demands imperfection. You write like a crazy person without editing, without stopping to make sure what you wrote makes sense, it doesn't allow you to beat yourself up.
"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." - William Faulkner
Again, this is what is so great about NaNoWriMo, it allows you write recklessly and to write really bad things that could turn into a wonderful story. You have to get the bad ideas and stories out of you before you can find greatness.
Never be afraid to write something controversial. Never be afraid to write the truth. Never be afraid to write.
"You can't blame a writer for what the characters say." - Truman Capote
Never ever let the fear of offending people stop you from writing a dynamic character. Characters that have the most depth tend to be the ones that say and do things most wouldn't. You are not your characters, if your villain is a racist asshole that doesn't mean you are one. If you protagonist is depressed and suicidal it doesn't mean you are. Think about the books you have read with horrible characters in them, did you ever think the author must be a horrible person too? Probably not because you know it's fiction.
"If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth." - Tim O'Brien
Don't be afraid to have your characters cuss or make obscene gestures. Obscenity isn't bad or wrong, don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
This quote is true in more ways than one. How many times have you laid in bed at night, starting up at the ceiling, replaying your day and how you would have done things differently? How you should have told someone how you felt? It happens all the time. Use your writing to say what had previously been left unsaid.
I hope these quotes inspire you and help you during National Novel Writing Month.
