The Write Quotes: Writing Process & Tools

Book excerpt: These inspirational and practical quotes come from 500+ podcast interviews with hard-working, award-winning, and New York Times bestselling authors in more than 33 U.S. states and five countries. In Book 3, authors share their honest reflections on Writing Process & Tools. These quotes reveal answers to some of the most commonly asked questions of writers. Authors quoted include David Baldacci, Therese Anne Fowler, Steve Berry, Lisa Jewell, John Hart, Sophie Cousens, Craig Johnson, Wylie Cash, Kristy Harvey, Brad Taylor, Charlie Lovett, Judy Goldman, Chris Fabry, Amber Smith, Tracy Clark, John Gilstrap, Kimmery Martin, A.J. Hartley, Clyde Edgerton, Jill McCorkle, Mark de Castrique, Cathy Pickens, David Joy, Gavin Edwards, and many more. Where do you write? When do you write? Do you write every day? How many drafts do you write? Do you create an outline? Do you use an editor? Do you? Do you? Do you? Though the answers vary in these pages, there are common denominators. As author and writing instructor Maureen Ryan Griffin says, “We all start with a blank page.” And as David Baldacci puts it, “There’s no perfect place to write.” Writers make do with what they have to work with. Take author and columnist Scott Fowler, who has earned 18 national APSE writing awards. He says, “I don’t go off to the mountain to write. I just go upstairs.” Or, as professor, author, and editor Michele Berger says, “A long time ago I said to myself, I can write anytime, anywhere.” Humility seems to be helpful to getting it done. As New York Times bestselling novelist John Hart says, “If a writer becomes hubristic, or begins to take this for granted, or really just thinks he can roll out of bed and bang it out without a lot of effort, that's the first step on the road to destruction.”