“I love writing.
I love the swirl and swing of
words as they tangle with
human emotions.”
~ James Michener

\"I think writer's block is simply the
dread that you are going to write
something horrible.
But, as a writer, you have to believe in
the words.”
~ Roy Blount, Jr.,
author of Crackers and One Fell Soup

\"When I'm looking for an idea,
I'll do anything--
clean the closet,
mow the lawn,
work in the garden.”
~Kevin Henkes, author of Chrysanthemum

\"There must be something to think
about at the end.”
~ Chris Van Allsburg,
author of The Wretched Stone & The Wreck of the Zephyr

\"Ideas are the cheapest part
of the writing.
They are free.
The hard part is what you do
with ideas you've gathered.”
~ Jane Yolen, author of Owl Moon & Sleeping Ugly

\"Work extra hard on the beginning of your
story, so it snares readers instantly. And
know how you're going to end your story
before you start writing; without a sense of
direction, you can get lost in the middle.”
~ Joan Lowery Nixon,
The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore &
The Other Side of Dark

“Writing is like a bird-watcher
watching for birds:
The stories are there: you just
have to train yourself to look
for them.”
~ Barbara Micheals, author of The Wizard's Daughter

\"Try drawing or painting a
scene you're working on.
Often this will help free up
you imagination.”
~ Kevin Henkes, author of Chrysanthemum

\"Push yourself to try new
things--
it will make you a better writer.”
~ Deborah Nourse Lattimore,
author of The Dragon's Robe & The Winged Cat

\"As a writer, you're obligated to draw
readers into your world, and if your
writing isn't interesting to them, you won't
succeed.”
~ Donald Perry,
author of Life Above the Jungle Floor

\"Once I have the idea for a story.
I start collecting all kinds of helpful
information and storing it in three-ring
notebooks.
For example, I may see a picture of a man
in a magazine and say,
'That's exactly what the father in my
book looks like!”
~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, author of Shiloh

\"Published writers still struggle with
the writing process.”
~ Laurence Pringle,
author of Dinosaurs: Strange and Wonderful

\"The golden rule of writing is to write
what you care about.
If you care about your topic,
you'll do your best writing,
and then you stand the best chance
of really touching a reader in some
way.”
~ Jerry Spinelli,
author of Maniac Magee & Fourth Grade Rats

\"I think what's really hard is making
sense and making what you write
clear and smooth-flowing.”
~ Roy Blount, Jr., author of
Crackers & One Fell Soup

\"Eventually you won't be thinking about
style very much at all. Style will be a word
that other people use to describe words
that have come to you, and words you
have spent time seeking to make your
characters live their visible and invisible
lives.”
~ John Casey,
author of Spartina & An American Romance

\"The writing for me is hard work
and I always look forward to
drawing the pictures.”
~ Marc Brown,
author of the Arthur books

\"...figurative language adds
pizzazz. It raises work above the
plain, the dull, the ordinary.”
~ Ellen Hunnicutt,
author of Suite for Calliope

\"I rewrite a great deal.
I'm always fiddling, always changing something.
I'll write a few words--then I'll change them.
I add. I subtract.
I work and fiddle and keep working and fiddling,
and I only stop at the deadline.”
~ Ellen Goodman,
Pulitzer Prize winning columnist & author of Turning Points

\"The concrete is better than the
abstract. The detail is better than the
commonplace. The sensual [through
the senses] is better than the
intellectual. The visual is better than the
mental.”
~ Ellen Hunnicutt, author of Suite for Calliope

\"If you do all that work of figuring out exactly how
writing is done,
then it's available to you at anytime, and you can
build on it.
It's like the difference between shooting one hoop
and having it go in by accident and saying later,
'I shot a basket,'--and practicing so much you can
do it whenever you want.”
~ Mark Salzman,
author of Iron and Silk & The Laughing Sutra

\"The only way to do it is to do it: by
writing, writing, writing.”
~ Barbara Michaels,
author of Ammie, Come Home & The Wizard's Daughter

\"Write, write, & write some more.
Think of writing as a muscle that
needs lots of exercise.”
~ Jane Yolen,
author of Owl Moon & Sleeping Ugly

\"I enjoy writing and it is hard.
It’s hard for everyone to write well.
I have to rewrite over and over again
so that on average it takes me a year
to write a book.”
~ Avi,
author of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle &
Nothing But the Truth

\"Some of the best writing comes when you
rehash.
It's in the retelling of stories that the
improvement comes.
The reflection comes in the polish.
What a person will see, what a person will feel,
comes in the polish.
When you finish polishing your writing, it forms
the image you're trying to create.”
~ Donald Perry,
free lance writer and author of Above the Jungle Floor

“The first draft is a skeleton--
just bare bones.
It's like the very first rehearsal of a play,
where the director moves the actors around
mechanically to get a feel of the action.”
~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, author of Shiloh

\"Revision plays a very large role in
writing. Sometimes it seems to be all
revision.
And the longer I write,
the more I revise--
until it is completely right.”
~ Ellen Hunnicutt, author of Suite for Calliope

\"Try not to become disappointed if
someone doesn't like a story you've
written.
Stick up for your ideas, but listen to
what other people say, too.
They might have good advice.”
~ Margaret Mahy,
author of Nonstop Nonsense & Fortunate Family Gang

\"Revision is very important to me.
I have to revise, cut, shape.
Sometimes I throw the whole thing away
and start from scratch.”
~ William Kennedy, author of Ironweed & Very Old Bones

“You're never going to be a
writer unless you write.
You have to sit down & write.”
~ Jane Yolen,
author of Owl Moon & Sleeping Ugly

\"I'm a rewriter. That's the part I like
best...once I have a pile of paper to
work with, it's like having the pieces of
a puzzle. I just have to put the pieces
together to make a picture.”
~ Judy Blume, author of Tales of a Fourth Grade
Nothing & Fudgemania