11 Valuable Pieces Of Writing Advice From Famous Authors

“You’re not making a whole body. You’re making its bones. You don’t need the muscle, the sinew, the skin. You certainly don’t need the makeup or the clothes. You just need bones. Something to work with. Something to build on. Something to make better, make whole. And you know the general shape of this body. You’ve read books, you like stories; you might not know every minor bone in a hand, but you know the big ones, the skull, and the spine, and the ribs. So go and make a body. There will be time to make it pretty later.” – V.E. Schwab 

“The most important things to remember about backstory are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.” – Stephen King 

“The best writing advice I can give is to find your community of writers. Find folks who are interested in the same genre and writing about the same things as you. When you find critique partners who understand your writing, that’s when you can start making real progress as a writer. People who don’t want to read what you want to write are going to give you bad advice!“  – Aiden Thomas 

“When writing, try and turn the ‘editor’ side of your brain off. (I have a sign over my desk that says ‘WORRY ABOUT THAT LATER’.) Then, when the draft is done – even if it’s very rough – you can put your editor hat on and fix all the plot holes and awkward sentences.” – Celest Ng

“Never stop reading, but take writing breaks when you feel yourself burning out. And always put shoes on when you want to get something finished. Even if you’re working from home—shoes on!” – Casey McQuinston

“If I could tell my younger writing self anything, it would be: listen to every edit note as if you have no choice but to take it. Instead of reacting defensively, or getting scared that you’re a Bad Writer, accept every edit as a test of how watertight the work is. If an edit note doesn’t work, that’s okay! But even the goofiest edit notes can help me find weak spots in what I’ve written.” – Sarah Gailey

“I would much rather not tell you how to feel about something. I would rather you just felt it. I will tell you what happens, and if I leave you crying because I just killed a unicorn, I’m not gonna tell you how sad the death of the unicorn was. I’m gonna kill that unicorn, and I’m gonna break your heart.” –Neil Gaiman

“Most writing rules are not rules at all, but rather just subjective personal opinions formed of both survivorship bias and an implementation of trends and preferences. Writing advice is bullshit, though bullshit can fertilize.” – Chuck Wendig

If you ever want to be a writer, know you’ll come to a point in the editing process (like where I am now with approving the final version of Whispering Door) where you’ll think your book is the worst thing ever written. Advice? Knock it off and be nicer to yourself.” – TJ Klune

“Let go of the idea that somehow you can outsmart a first draft. Because I have never met anybody who can.” – Leigh Bardugo 

Read all the time and keep writing. There are a million talented writers out there who are unpublished only because they stop writing when it gets hard. Don’t do that— keep writing.” – Gillian Flynn