Now we know why some writers drink - blog | 888-743-9939

Blog

Now we know why some writers drink!

December 23, 2023May 9, 2025 609

There is a stereotype out there about writers. They’re talented and frustrated and hit the bottle way too often. Maybe the reason some talented writers are frustrated and drink to excess is because of what they’re asked to write. Example:

Why Writers Drink

I haven’t got 10 rules that guarantee success, though I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.

J.K. Rowling

You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.

Jodi Picoult

Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.

Robert Altman

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

Quentin Tarantino

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

It always comes down to characters, and individual stories about courage.

Steven Bochco

Don’t annoy an author, you’ll end up in their book and you won’t look good.

Lawrence Wray

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

George Singleton

I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.

Stephen Wright

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.

Lisa See

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Neil Gaiman

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G.K. Chesterton

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

No writer has ever yet been known to hang himself as long as he had another chapter left.

Thomas Wolfe

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

Stories are never too long or too short. They’re too interesting or too boring.

William Shawn

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

Every writer with half a brain knows to surround himself or herself with editors who are smarter, far more articulate and infinitely better looking.