Beginning writers quotes:

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One of the biggest problems for beginning writers is this need to over-explain. -- Scarlett Thomas
Unfortunately, there's still a lot of beginning writers who think you can just write your first draft and hand it in. -- Chevy Stevens
Less really is more. It's a tendency of beginning writers to want to prove what they're talking about by going too far with description. I think you've got to keep it short, crisp and clean. -- Brad Thor
Be persistent. Editors change; tastes change; editorial markets change. Too many beginning writers give up too easily. -- John Jakes
I have only one bit of advice to beginning writers: be sure your novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein. -- James A. Michener
Don't mistake a good setup for a satisfying conclusion - many beginning writers end their stories when the real story is just ready to begin. -- Stanley Schmidt
Less really is more. It's a tendency of beginning writers to want to prove what they're talking about by going too far with description. I think you've got to keep it short, crisp and clean -- Brad Thor
What's strange is how many beginning writers seem to think that grammar is irrelevant, or that they are somehow above or beyond this subject more fit for a schoolchild than the future author of great literature. -- Francine Prose
When you finally start to write something, do not let yourself stop...even when you are convinced it's the worst garbage ever. This is the biggest caveat for beginning writers. Instead, force yourself to finish what you began, and THEN go back and edit it. -- Jodi Picoult
One thing about beginning writers is that they don't really always know their own strengths and weaknesses - you might think you're bad at characterization, but that might really be because of some issue you're having with another element, which is making it hard for you to express character in a convincing way. -- Jeff Vandermeer
One of the things that I tell beginning writers is this: If you describe a landscape, or a cityscape, or a seascape, always be sure to put a human figure somewhere in the scene. Why? Because readers are human beings, mostly interested in human beings. People are humanists. Most of them are humanists, that is. -- Kurt Vonnegut
One is always enthralled, I think, when a young writer you're just beginning to read and comprehend dies. -- Joy Williams
I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault. -- Tanith Lee
For me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world is a placebo. -- Nicholson Baker
At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career. -- Bernard Cornwell
I'm always amazed by writers who tell me they plan everything at the beginning. I feel their writing days must be very bland. -- Rose Tremain
Advice to beginning SF writers? Write a lot, finish what you write, and when it's done, keep sending it out for quite awhile. -- Rudy Rucker
The beginning of a book is always the hardest part for me. I'm a Chapter 3 kind of writer, which means I naturally start at Chapter 3. -- Kami Garcia
A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print. -- Marguerite Yourcenar
I never really wanted to be an actor. And that was the beginning of it, I began to write things down and eventually became a writer on a television show. -- Barry Levinson
Since I was there in the very beginning, I know the history of the characters. So, I make comments about the tone and sometimes remind the writers that we've done that before. -- Matt Groening
In the beginning, I tried to be a more cosmopolitan writer, but I realized that I was a country boy, and I had to deal with things I knew about and where I came from. -- Ernest Gaines
It was a pleasure to work with Destiny's Child in the beginning of their career. Working in the studio with Beyonce was a lot of fun. She's an extremely hard worker, perfectionist, and a talented writer. -- Chris Stokes
If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life. -- John Irving
Writers, actors, anybody working on an ensemble-type thing, there are going to be some creaks in the beginning. It seems like there's tremendous potential in just letting things sort of breathe a little bit. It's tremendously important. -- Edie Falco
I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside. -- Anne Tyler
So I think that in the beginning of your career you're just looking to work. Luckily for me, my first movie was 'Rabbit Hole' and I got to work with incredible people, a Pulitzer prize winning writer, John Cameron Mitchell, and all the actors involved. So it's tough, man, because you want to have credibility. -- Miles Teller
First and foremost, I consider myself a storyteller. And I'm endlessly fascinated with people, with what they do and why... and how they feel about it. Which means I'm interested in romance fiction. I was drawn to it, as both a reader and a writer, at the very beginning of my career. It's my kind of storytelling. -- Debbie Macomber
For us, there's an inherent process when you're ending something to be thinking about the beginning, as writers. -- Damon Lindelof
Nobody wanted me. I just kept writing books and learning my craft. Most writers aren't very good in the beginning. -- Phyllis A. Whitney
Beginning writers must appreciate the prerequisites if they hope to become writers. You pay your dues - which takes years. -- Alex Haley
I was lucky to receive help at the beginning of my career and now I want to help other writers as much as I can. -- Jennifer Weiner

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