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The Washington Post’s neologism contest winners.

December 2, 2019May 9, 2025 2235

I came across this today and broke up laughing. These are seriously clever! Thanks to the Washington Post. I wasn’t aware of their neologism contest, but I am now! Read and enjoy. Pass it along.

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

Harlan Ellison

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

G.K. Chesterton

A writer is a world trapped in a person.

Victor Hugo

Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.

Stephen King

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

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

Steven Bochco

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

Jodi Picoult

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Edward Albee

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

Thomas Wolfe

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

Lisa See

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

Biography should be written by an acute enemy.

Arthur Balfour

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

E. B. White

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

Truman Capote Quote

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

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

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

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer. You’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.