"Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place."

Writing, First

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"Sometimes I can spend as long revising a manuscript as I spent writing it in the first place."

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"Writing. Is it a way to be remembered,or a need to become immortal?"

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"I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine."

Emily Dickinson, American Poet

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"Between the lines of every book the writer reveals their own secrets."

Chloe Thurlow, British Novelist

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"My whole theory of writing I can sum up in one sentence. An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward."

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"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

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"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it."

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"As a rule of thumb, four consecutive lines of dialogue is about as much as you want to have without a tag."

Diana Gabaldon, American Author

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"In the middle section of the book Mirabelle breaks into not one, but two houses near Belgravia Books. I had fun scoping these out - checking which windows looked least secure and figuring out how to scale the mews houses to the rear to get her inside. A man came out at one point, 'What are you doing?' he questioned me. 'The thing is, I'm writing a book,' I started with a smile. He waved me off, his hand as wide as a tennis racket. 'Everyone is writing a book, my dear,' he said. Between you and I, it's his house that MIrabelle ends up breaking into."

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Explore more quotes by Margaret Haddix

"I think I learned a lot from reading in general - even from reading badly written books."

Books

"Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it."

Writing

"It's just so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about a story. I have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want."

Writing

"The deadlines are much, much longer with books. When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., get an assignment right away, interview somebody, turn the story in by 9:30, and have the finished story in the paper that landed on my desk by noon."

Books

"I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I'm telling strange tales."

Fact

"After I've sent my revised draft to my agent and editor, they suggest more improvement sand again, this revision phase can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months."

Writing

"I like playing around with the words; I love it when I feel like I've picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I'm trying to describe."

Love

"I started trying to write when I was in second or third grade."

Writing

"When writing isn't going well-then the bad thing about being a writer is that I also have the freedom and flexibility to do something badly, and no one else can fix it for me."

Being

"I write a book over a period of months or years, and when I'm done with it, usually another year goes by before I see it in print. It's hard to be patient and wait."

Writing