NaNoWriMo Inspiration! 42 Inspirational Quotes for Writing

In honor of the month of November, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo!), I've decided to compile *42 FANTASTIC WRITERLY QUOTES* to inspire you ^_^!

They aren’t in any particular order. Some are hilarious, some are blunt, some are nurturing…but they’re all inspiring. So read and interpret at your leisure, and if you hit a slump, come back for more!

My NaNoWriMo participation isn't going to result in a full length novel...and I'm ok with that because I have a portfolio to submit for a scholarship and I want to WIN IT. (Or, more accurately, one of the awards the Foundation offers for it.)

So even if you can’t write a full novel, write something. You’ll be glad you did :)!

If you're feeling discouraged about your plot, characters, and/or word count, read on!

If you’re simply looking for some inspiration to get you started or keep you going, read on!

If you’re not sure if you really want to jump on this wagon of crazy (it’s fun…you know you want to…), read on!

"Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves?" ~Friedrich Nietzsche

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." ~George Eliot

"The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night." ~Thomas S. Monson

"If you've FINISHED writing a novel you are amongst the elite!!! You ARE NOT A FAILURE IF YOU CANNOT LIVE OFF YOUR BOOKS. You only fail by NOT TRYING." ~Nadia Cornier

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” ~Joseph Heller

“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” ~Arthur Plotnik

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." ~André Gide

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, brain surgery." ~Robert Cormier

 “A one-page breakthrough starts an avalanche.” ~Nancy K. Haddock

"When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'” ~Stephen King

"It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or fortune but just yourself that kept things from you." ~Lillian Hellman

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~Thomas Edison

"I dwell in possibility." ~Emily Dickenson

“Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.” ~Jean Sibelius

“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.” ~Orson Scott Card

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” ~Anaïs Nin

"There were days when I wondered if I was a glutton for punishment or simply delusional. However, my writing must have been improving because one day I found myself with three agents interested in my latest manuscript." ~Lois Winston

"We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world." ~Marianne Williamson

 “There is no agony like having an untold story inside you.” ~Zora Neale Hurston

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” ~Joan Didion

“I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else.” ~Dolly Parton

“If your ship hasn't come in--swim out to it.” ~Mary Engelbreit

 “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” ~Henry David Thoreau

 “My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water.” ~Mark Twain

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.” ~Buckminster Fuller

“The expert at anything was once a beginner.” ~Hayes

"All writers are crazy. So never mind what the editors and your family and your critique group tells you. Submit your  manuscripts and keep submitting until you get an offer. Then you can be crazy, with a paycheck." ~Mary Janice Davidson

"I don't give in, I don't give up, I don't take no for an answer." ~Doris Roberts

“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

 “If you are hungry, you should eat. If there is a hunger in your soul, you must dream.” ~Unknown

“I only write when I'm inspired, and I make sure I'm inspired every morning at 9 a.m.” ~Peter DeVries

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” ~Benjamin Franklin

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” ~Albert Einstein

“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” ~Helen Keller

 “Write about what you know and care deeply about. When one puts one’s self on paper — that is what is called good writing.” ~Joel Chandler Harris

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” ~Muriel Rukeyser

“I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.” ~Steve Martin

“Editing might be a bloody trade. But knives aren’t the exclusive property of butchers. Surgeons use them too.” ~Blake Morrison

"Believe in yourself and in your own voice, because there will be times in this business when you will be the only one who does. Take heart from the knowledge that an author with a strong voice will often have trouble at the start of his or her career because strong, distinctive voices sometimes make editors nervous. But in the end, only the strong survive." ~Jayne Ann Krentz

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” ~James Michener

“It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” ~Robert Southey

I’ll end with the thoughts of Orson Scott Card:

“The story in my mind is nothing but a hope: the text of the story is the tool I created in order to try to make that hope a reality. The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears. The story of Ender’s Game is not this book, though it has that title emblazoned on it. The story is the one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together” (Introduction, Ender’s Game).

What are some of your favorite inspirational quotes for writing?