Tawni O'Dell Quotes

I think what I've recognized over the years is that I'm very, very bingey, extremely bingey when it comes to writing.

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating.

I write every day. Most weekdays, I write about ten hours a day. That doesn't mean eight hours of surfing the Net or watching videos on YouTube. I park my butt in a chair and write... I learned that writer's block is a myth created by people who don't have, or understand, a writing process.

I have reached the point where I know that as long as I sit down to write, the ideas will come. What they will be, I don't know.

I write very, very slowly, and for me, I have to summon all sorts of resources to make one of these pieces work.

Writing is a funny thing. It's not like you're working on a schedule. It comes in fits and starts.

I've read somewhere that when you're writing, you should stop while you're doing well so you always want to go back to work.

Writing - not being a writer with interesting habits - gets priority.

I write - and then I write some more.

My idea of writing is of unflinching and continual effort, somehow trying to find the right words until you reach a point where you can make no further progress and you either have something or you don't.

At first, I spend about four hours a day writing. Toward the end of a book, I spend up to 16 hours a day on it, because all I want to do is make it good and get it done.

The experienced writer says to the anguished novice: 'Just do it; get something, anything, on to the screen or page, just establish a flow of words, and criticise them later.' You give this advice but can't always take it.

You have to have a somewhat cold heart to be a writer.

I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.

The hardest part is making the time to write. Not finding the time to write, mind you. Making.

I can't speak in too much detail about a book or story I'm working on because I find that it takes the energy out of my writing. When I begin to work, it's like a soda bottle that's been jostled before it's opened. There's a lot of pent up energy in there. I have to let it out slowly, carefully, so that I can turn it into a written work.

I'm always amazed by writers who say, 'Oh you know I had a half hour so I sat down and wrote a little bit.' I just need a real big chunk of time to sit down and focus. That's my process.

When I lock myself up to write, I cannot allow myself to think about the censor or the reviewer or anyone but my characters and their story!

You hear about people who write 15 to 20 novels. How do they do it? You just gotta do it.

One of my favorite rules of writing: stop whenever it's feeling really good so you have something to look forward to the next day.

Sometimes you don't really know what you're going to write about. I mean, there's times where you get into a writing room and it's a complete flop. And then there's times where you get to a writing room and you're like, 'Oh, I'm just on a roll.'

I just write from dawn to dusk.

The space where writing happens is a unique space that's hard to define, and when you're kicked out of it because you're travelling or distracted, it seems so elusive and hard to defend because you yourself doubt whether it existed.

It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.'

Not intending to be funny: I sit at the keyboard, put my fingers on the keys and go. To me, it's the real secret of writing. Put yourself in front of the screen or the blank sheet of paper and get to work.