'I collected l60 rejection slips (plays, stories, articles, novels) before I sold that first book. While I was peddling it, I wrote a 628-page novel about Ivan the Terrible. It’s still holding up the short leg of a table in my study.' ~Loren D. Estleman #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

7 Plotting Secrets Every Writer Can Learn From Agatha Christie | On 15 September, we celebrate the birthday of the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, with seven of her plotting secrets. #agathachristie #authorbirthday #writingsky #booksky #cozymystery

'Provoke the reader. Astonish the reader. Writing that has no surprises is as bland as oatmeal. Surprise the reader with the unexpected verb or adjective. Use one startling adjective per page.' ~Anne Bernays #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

'I have seldom written a story, long or short, that I did not have to write and rewrite. There are single stories of mine that have taken me ten or twelve years to get written.' ~Sherwood Anderson #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

'Most writers enjoy two periods of happiness—when a glorious idea comes to mind, and when a last page has been written and you haven’t had time to know how much better it ought to be.' ~J. B. Priestley #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

'To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies — the man who searches painfully for the perfect word, and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said — there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.' ~H. L. Mencken #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

'A good story is like a bitter pill, with the sugar coating inside of it.' ~O. Henry #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

'I like to write when I feel spiteful. It is like having a good sneeze.' ~D.H. Lawrence #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky

'Writing about feeling disconnected has enabled me to connect, and that has been the most lovely thing of all.' ~Marian Keyes #authorbirthday #botd #writingsky

'I’m a plotter. I’m not one of those who likes to have the excitement of not knowing what’s coming from day to day. I’d rather have worked out the essentials of the plot well ahead of time... And then I can enjoy the process of writing even more.' ~Peter Lovesy #authorbirthday #botd #writingsky

'All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' ~Leo Tolstoy #botd #authorbirthday

'Problem, purpose, conflict, goal. Use them. Think about them while you are in the planning phase of your novel; keep these elements at the back of your mind to guide you while you write. When you have written a scene, make sure they are all there.' ~Phyllis A. Whitney #authorbirthday #botd

'It took me years and years to realise a very simple thing, which is that when you write fiction you’re raising questions, and a lot of people think you’re playing a little game with them and that actually you know the answers to the questions.' ~Ann Beattie #authorbirthday #writingsky #booksky

'My best advice is to write. Just write. Write with all your heart, with everything in you that hungers to tell this story. Finish a short story, a novella, a novel, whatever resonates most with you – but finish it. Then write some more.' ~Nalini Singh #authorbirthday #botd #writingsky

Jennifer Egan’s Advice For Young Writers | Jennifer Egan celebrates her birthday on 7 September. What can this Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist teach young writers about the writing life? #jenniferegan #authorbirthday #botd #writingsky #booksky

'Dismissing fantasy writing because some of it is bad is exactly like saying I’m not reading 'Jane Eyre' because it is a romance and I know romance is crap.' ~China Miéville #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky #booksky

'A reader reads a book. If it’s a good book, he forgets himself. That’s all a book has to do. When the reader can’t forget himself and keeps having to think about the writer the whole time, the book is a failure.' ~Herman Koch #botd #authorbirthday#booksky #writingsky

'You can’t write well with only the nice parts of your character, and only about nice things. And I don’t want even to try anymore. I want to use everything, including hate and envy and lust and fear.' ~Alison Lurie #botd #authorbirthday #writingsky