Monday Motivation: Get Started With Wit and Wisdom from the Writers

It’s Monday and I’m not feeling particularly motivated. I need a kick-start. Not by someone’s boot applied swiftly to the seat of my pants. I need something more powerful.

I need words—like these quotes from famous (or otherwise) authors:

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

“You can make anything by writing.”—C.S. Lewis

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”—Anne Frank

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”— Louis L’Amour

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”—Jack London

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”― Jodi Picoult

“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.”—Lawrence Block

“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”—Shannon Hale

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”—William Faulkner

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”—Terry Pratchett

 “First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!”—Ray Bradbury

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”—Madeleine L’Engle

 “Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk—away from any open flames—to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.”—George Singleton

“I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.”— William Carlos Williams

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”— Richard Bach

 “Deadline is the great motivator.”—Burton W. Cole

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”—Douglas Adams

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”—Robert Benchley

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”—Groucho Marx

 “Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

There, wasn’t that more inspiring than a kick in the pants? Now get writing!