Amy Bloom Quotes

You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

Don't write outlines; I hate outlines.

I should be concentrating on writing pages.

Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting.

I'm a big believer in puking out all your thoughts in a single sitting and getting some version of the work down, because the alternative just prolongs the agony. The first draft is hideous and ajskdlkdfksjdfslfjk, but it's just a map for where the big blocks go.

Writing is very good for household tasks. Because you'd rather fix a dripping tap or paint an old wall - you'd rather do almost anything than sit and write. I have to reach a point of obsession in order to write, and so I find starting a book incredibly difficult.

The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying.

I don't even subscribe to writer's block being a truthful thing. I've had writer's laziness quite often. But I think it's all about sitting down and facing down the blank page and doing it, and I've always been ok at that.

I haven't had trouble with writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled with lurching, cliched writing, outright flailing around. Writing that doesn't have a good voice or any voice. But then there will be good moments.

I am a big proponent of writing a great outline. That way you can avoid hitting a roadblock. There is no worse feeling than writing yourself into a corner but if you've figured it all out in the outline then you won't have that problem.

One of the things I'm really good at is procrastinating.

I don't listen to music when I'm writing, but I often do when I'm reworking, editing or when I need to relax.

I'm so good at procrastinating.

I write down portions, maybe fragments, and perhaps an imperfect view of what I'm hoping to write. Out of that, I keep trying to find exactly what I want.

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.

Outlining is like putting on training wheels. It gives me the courage to write, but we always go off the outline.

The writing process for me is pretty much always the same - it's a solitary experience.

The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

I probably spend 90% of my time revising what I've written.

The minimum I need is six months to allow for dithering, procrastination and the research. The research times varies from book to book; some are faster because they're based off resources I have at my disposal.

I think of myself as naturally idle. The trouble is, the 'nothing' that I do every day is not really nothing. I potter. I muck about with emails, I make coffee, I fiddle with my computer to make sure that the book I haven't started writing is perfectly synced across all platforms and devices.

I can procrastinate a little bit.

I'd been in journalism about two weeks when I realized I would do just about anything to avoid writing, and over the years, I have.

I write everything out in longhand in one fast go. And then I throw out the first few and start over again. By the end of the first draft, the whole thing's messy and disgusting and horrible, but you really understand the foundational stuff.

The writing process is the time where nothing's been set in stone. It's a blank slate, or a blank page.