Becoming A Writer Quotes

“A true writer is someone the gods have called to the task.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson:

“I can still remember the miraculous feeling of writing a sentence, then more sentences, telling a story. The first thing I wrote was a one-page summary of Robinson Crusoe and I am so sorry I do not have it any more; it was at that moment I became an author."

[As quoted in the author biography on Mankell's official website.]”
― Henning Mankell

“The only happiness you have is writing something new, in the middle of the night, armpits damp, heart pounding, something no one has yet seen. You have only those brief, fragile, untested moments of exhilaration when you know: you are a genius.”
― Lorrie Moore

“If you want to become a writer from scratch and only write what you want to write without comprise or selling out, then it will probably be at least one hundred thousand times more difficult than you had previous imagined to make it. And the irony is, if you do finally make it your fondest memories will be of all those struggling years or decades when you were creating art before you were considered a writer.”
― Jack Freestone, Essential Guide to Creative Writing and Self-publishing

“But I'm not a writer..."

How many times have you thought that? How many times have you said it out loud?

How many times have you read a beautifully worded book or a poem or an essay or a social media post and felt it take your breath away? Felt that yearning inside of you, that longing to do that or learn that or become that thing...the one that would let you find the words to share your story like that.

If only you were brave enough. If only you were wise enough. If only you had all the right words. If only you were talented. If only you could speak the truth without being judged. If only you could write like her or him or them.

If only you were a writer...

Guess what. You are. You are a writer - and I promise you this. If you were not a writer you wouldn't be here.

You are a writer because words dance in your brain and itch the tips of your fingers - begging you to pick up the pen or click the keyboard. Because a phrase on a page or the lyric of a song can steal your breath and remind you of all lines that live in your soul that long for release. Because you are pulled, again and again, and again to story. To the real and raw and the fantastically make-believe.

You are a writer because of your willingness to stare into the void and face the demons and weave the beauty of the world around you into words. And even if those words don't ever make it to a page, they live inside of you.

Because you couldn't stop, even if you wanted to. And you don't want to. Because the words are like your breath and the story - your story - that is the air. And the magic that happens when we come together to make stories - well, that's the universe.

So the next time you're tempted to let that phrase or any other like it - slip into your brain or from your lips - shut that shit down.

Immediately.

You are a writer. Do you hear me? You said yes. You are here. You are showing up at the page and sitting in front of the screen. You are welcoming the muse. You are facing the fear. And you are writing.

You are a writer.

And that's the beginning and end of everything.

Now, stop arguing with me, and go write already.”
― Jeanette LeBlanc