Inkpunks

When I competed in fitness competitions, I used motivational quotes to help me put my best effort into every training session, to stick to the strict diet and to keep my enthusiasm high. I had them all over the place, in my workout journal, in my competitoin scrapbook, on the fridge and in my travel journals for each competition.

Now that I’ve begun to focus on my writing, I’ve started a collection of motivational quotes to help me along the way. Some people may think it’s cheesy or feeble-minded to rely on outside sources and other people’s words for your own motivation, but I disagree. I’m smart enough to know I should learn everything I can from those more experienced in the industry. Competing in fitness was tough (and that’s an understatement!) and writing is tough. Whatever we can do to help us through those tough times is worth it.

These are some of my favourites. If you have other quotes you like, please add them in the comments. I’m always looking to expand my collection and I’m sure others are as well. I hope some of these can help you in your writing journey.

“I write for the same reason I breathe-because if I didn’t, I would die.”
-Isaac Asimov

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
-Ray Bradbury

“A science fiction writer should try to combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic.”
-Robert J Sawyer

“Start early and work hard. A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin. That takes a while.”
-David Eddings

“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
-Toni Morrison

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of 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

“You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.”
-Ray Bradybury

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”
-Isaac Asimov

“When asked, ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word ata time.'”
-Stephen King

“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.”
-Anne Rice

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
-Henry David Thoreau

“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.”
-Robert Heinlein

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to impovise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
-Sylvia Plath

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
-Mark Twain

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
-Albert Einstein

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
-Orson Scott Card

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
-Ray Bradbury

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