Great hooks; #2

It was Mrs. May who first told me about them.
-Mary Norton
The Borrowers

Great Hooks; #1

"Where's papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
-E.B White
Charlotte's Web

A Blank Piece of Paper

A blank piece of paper is God's way of showing a writer how hard it is to be God.
~Joel Saltzman

Why We Write

Writers don't write because they want to say something. They write because they have something to say.

Fix It

If you are bothered, how ever slightly, by the way you've written something--fix it.
~Robert Kanigel

Too Long?

If you run out of breath while reading a sentence, it's too long.

Stuck!

This is an awesome paragraph from book called, Writing Magic, by Gail Carson Levine about what to do when you get stuck while writing a story. she says that she makes herself write down twelve options of what could happen next

I tell myself that I'm going to write down stupid options as well as excelent ones. I write down the stupid one because they are brave. This sounds crazy but ,it's true. Whenever I start a list, my stupid ideas surge forward, but the useable ones hang back. They're shy and want to see how the stupid ones get treated. When they see me behave respectfully to the dopes, they tip toe out into the open. I snag them and write them down, too.