The quote library
Frankisms
Short truths, collected over a lifetime of writing and teaching. Read a few, or lose an afternoon.
- Collected
- 1,993
“All things are difficult before they are easy. — Lisa Cron”
writing
“All writers have a wealth of valuable feelings and insights; it’s just a question of knowing how to tap into them. — Dara Marks”
writing
“Always challenge your character to leave her comfort zone. — DiAnn Mills”
writing
“An agonized, messed-up reader wants to keep reading. — Mary DeMuth”
writing
“An antagonist who is human, understandable, justified, and even right will stir in your readers the maximum unease. — Donald Maass”
writing
“An engaging and realistic setting is one of the most important hooks you can establish. — Cheryl St.John”
writing
“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows. — Dwight D. Eisenhower”
writing
“An unpredictable response now and then adds depth and intrigue to the story. — Robyn Carr”
writing
“Any person, place, or thing is funny if you know how to look at it. — Donald Maass”
writing
“Any writer who has survived childhood has enough material to last them the rest of their lives. — Flannery O’Connor”
writing
“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it. — Oscar Wilde (18541900), Aphorisms”
writing
“Anything that attracts attention to itself within your writing is something that’s going to take the reader out of the story. — Elizabeth George”
writing
“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth. — Picasso”
writing
“As great chunks of words and paragraphs fall to the machete, new words must be found to repair the damage done. The goal is that when all the patches are in place, the length will have been reduced significantly—without damage to the whole. — Theodore A. Rees Cheney”
writing
“As we learn a character’s history, we find it easier to predict how they will act within the pages of our story. — DiAnn Mills”
writing
“As you learn to feel out the story by constantly asking yourself what would naturally happen next—based on the narrative forces that shape all stories—you’ll find your characters acting in more believable and honest ways. — Steven James”
writing
“As you pay attention to the choices your characters make and honestly let the implications of their choices play out on the page, you’ll find yourself writing your book forward and backward at the same time. — Steven James”
writing
“As you reach the ending of your stories, look back at your beginning and find ways to make them relate to each other. — Elizabeth Lyon”
writing
“As you write, visualize what you are writing about, and your words will naturally fit the image. — Joe Vitale”
writing
“At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did; they will remember how you made them feel. — Maya Angelou”
writing
“Audiences know what they want, but they seldom know what they need. — Alan Weiss”
writing
“Avoid using the male singular if the subject could be male or female. — Sandra Glahn, editor in chief of Kindred Spirit magazine”
writing
“Backstory delivered early on crashes down on a story’s momentum like a sumo wrestler falling on his opponent. — Donald Maass”
writing
“Backstory is the compass point to learning about your character. — DiAnn Mills”
writing
“Be consistent and focused and true to a single reader, representative of a larger niche readership. When a writer achieves this focus the reader buys into the story and is not then ripped out of that reality by something that doesn’t feel right. — Kip Langello”
writing
“Be critical of what you write, not the person who wrote it. — Joel Saltzman”
writing
“Be sure to connect them and they with plural antecedents. — Sandra Glahn, editor in chief of Kindred Spirit magazine”
writing
“Be yourself when you write. You will stand out as a real person among the robots. — William Zinsser”
writing
“Beat up your protagonist physically or emotionally. — Carole Bugge”
writing
“Because our feelings are unique, our best attempt to describe feelings with words is never quite adequate. — Thomas Harris”
writing
“Because this subject/verb relationship is so important, most of the work commas do is to keep other parts of the sentence out of its way. — Robert Pinkert”
writing
“Because we know what the truth is, and what the future will be, we forget that our characters don’t. — Lisa Cron”
writing
“Become so involved in the character’s backstory and motivation that you can close your eyes and imagine how you’d feel or react in their shoes. — Cheryl St.John”
writing
“Begin treating your story people like real people, not chess pieces. — Jeff Gerke”
writing
“Behavior will seem irrational unless we know the motivation. — Cheryl St.John”
writing
“Being specific will increase the emotional intensity of your story. — Cheryl St.John”
writing
“Believable, memorable characters are complicated combinations of pride and vulnerabilities, appealing mixes of dashing and determined exteriors with hurts, hopes, and dreams—like yours. — Cheryl St.John”
writing
“Big stakes raise the temperature of everything, and we can’t pull our eyes away from people who are experiencing ever higher levels of emotional heat. — Eric Edson”
writing
“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact. — George Eliot (18181880), Impressions of Theophrastus Such [1879]”
writing
“Books in boxes minister to no one. — Kirby Anderson, host of Point of View radio talk show”
writing