“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.”

Last update Feb. 4, 2022. History

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Beatrix Potter18

English children's writer and illustrator 1866–1943

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“The first thing that begins to happen when you begin taking yourself seriously as a writer is this imaginary writer’s block that people talk about, but I never really suffered from. But there’s this barrier between the spoken word and the written word, once you set something down in writing it’s supposed to be set in stone or you take on this funny attitude that writing is unnatural…”

Frank Chin (1940) American writer

On the writing process in ““FRANK CHIN: HIS OWN VOICE” https://resisters.com/by-frank-abe/frank-chin-his-own-voice/ in the Bloombury Review (September 1991)

“When you write a short story … you had better know the ending first.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

The Casebook of the Black Widowers (1980), p. 177
General sources
Context: When you write a short story... you had better know the ending first. The end of a story is only the end to the reader. To the writer, it's the beginning. If you don't know exactly where you're going every minute you're writing, you'll never get there — or anywhere.

“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

“The word "interview" is written as taking material. If you come in contact with it like you want to take such material, it will be transmitted. So, instead of taking material, you are I think it's all about listening with the desire to know and listen to your story.”

Miri Yu (1968) Zainichi Korean writer

As quoted in "For those who have no place to live" A story spun by Miri Yu" in Teller Report (17 December 2020) https://www.tellerreport.com/life/2020-12-17-%0A---%22for-those-who-have-no-place-to-live%22-a-story-spun-by-miri-yu-%0A--.B1br_RudnD.html

“The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you must do everyday. There are two reasons for this rule: Getting the work done and connecting with your unconscious mind.”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

“When you write you tell yourself a story. When you rewrite you take out everything that is NOT the story.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Variant: When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft