“Don’t quit. It’s very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it’s very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can’t get fired if you don’t write, and most of the time you don’t get rewarded if you do. But don’t quit.”
~ Andre Dubus
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October 31, 2014 | Categories: Inspiration, Writing | Tags: Andre Dubus, Inspiration, Keep Moving Forward, Quotes, Writing Advice | Leave a comment
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
~ Teddy Roosevelt
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October 4, 2013 | Categories: Inspiration, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Arts, goal accomplishment, Inspiration, Quotes, Theodore Roosevelt, Triumph, Writing | Leave a comment
Really, in the end, the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately — many people will help you unintentionally.
*Originally posted October, 2012
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July 26, 2013 | Categories: Quotes, Writing | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Editing and Proofreading, Inspiration, laney mcmann, novel creation, Quotes, Writer, Writer Resources, Writers Resources, Writing, Writing process, YA paranormal romance author | Leave a comment
“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
~ Lloyd Alexander

Omega Point Dark Fantasy Mysterious World (Photo credit: Liqueur Felix)
- Fantastic reality (fingerprintskavita.wordpress.com)
- “Even Nothing Cannot Last Forever” (thesecretkeeper.net)
- “Fantasy is esc… (deathofanauthor.com)
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May 30, 2013 | Categories: Inspiration, Novel Writing, Quotes, Thoughts, Writing | Tags: Arts, Author, Fantasy, Fantasy world, Fiction, laney mcmann, Lloyd Alexander, novel writing, Quotes, Science Fiction and Fantasy | 4 Comments
“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
~ Neil Gaiman
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April 16, 2013 | Categories: Author, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Author, Fiction, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Literature, Neil Gaiman, Quotes | Leave a comment
Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
~ Joseph Conrad

English: Joseph Conrad Print Collection portrait file. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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April 9, 2013 | Categories: Inspiration, Life, Novel Writing, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Arts, Fiction, Inspiration, Joseph Conrad, laney mcmann, novel writing, Quotes, Writer, Writing Advice | Leave a comment
“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”
~ Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book)

The Graveyard Book (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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March 29, 2013 | Categories: Author, Inspiration, Quotes, Writer, Writing | Tags: American Gods, Arts, books, Coraline, Graveyard Book, laney mcmann, Literature, Neil Gaiman, Quotes, Writing Advice | Leave a comment
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know how to. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

William Faulkner, 1954 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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December 20, 2012 | Categories: Author, Quotes, Writing, Writing Tips | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Author, Dream, goal accomplishment, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Quotes, William Faulkner, Writing Tips | 1 Comment
“You must be prepared to work always without applause.”
~Ernest Hemingway

English: Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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December 5, 2012 | Categories: Author, Inspiration, Novel Writing, Quotes | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Arts, Ernest Hemingway, Fiction, goal accomplishment, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Quotes, Writing process | Leave a comment
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.
~Erica Long
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November 9, 2012 | Categories: Author, Quotes, Writer | Tags: Fiction, goal accomplishment, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Quotes | Leave a comment
“I believe legends and myths are largely made of truth …”

Tolkien’s monogram, and Tolkien Estate trademark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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November 7, 2012 | Categories: Author, Quotes, Writing | Tags: art, Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, laney mcmann, Literature, Lord of Rings, Middle-earth, myths, Myths and Folktales, Quotes, YA paranormal romance author | Leave a comment
“It’s always too early to quit.”

Norman Vincent Peale, Christian preacher and author of The Power of Positive Thinking (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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November 5, 2012 | Categories: Publishing, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Editing and Proofreading, Inspiration, laney mcmann, New Age, Norman Vincent Peale, Power of Positive Thinking, Quotes, Rewrites, Writing and Editing, Writing process, Writing Tips, YA paranormal romance author | 1 Comment
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

English: Oscar Wilde, three-quarter length portrait, facing front, seated, leaning forward, left elbow resting on knee, hand to chin, holding walking stick in right hand, wearing coat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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October 16, 2012 | Categories: Author, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Arts, Author, Fiction, laney mcmann, Literature, Oscar Wilde, Quotes, Writing | Leave a comment
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Virginia Dare
~Michael Scott — The Warlock

Michael Scott promotional photo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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October 8, 2012 | Categories: Author, Inspiration, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Author, Creativity, Destination Imagination, Fiction, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Michael Scott, Psychology, Quotes, Virginia Dare, ya fantasy author, YA Fiction | 1 Comment
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
― J.K. Rowling ~~The Deathly Hallows
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October 4, 2012 | Categories: Author, Books, Quotes | Tags: Author, Deathly Hallows, excerpts, Harry, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Inspiration, JK Rowling, laney mcmann, Literature, Quotes | Leave a comment
Sometimes when I think how good my book can be, I can hardly breathe.
~Truman Capote

English: Truman Capote (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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September 29, 2012 | Categories: Author, Inspiration, Quotes, Writing | Tags: 20th Century, American, art, Author, breakfast at tiffany, Capote, Fiction, goal accomplishment, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Literature, Quotes, Truman Capote, World Literature, Writer, Writers Resources | Leave a comment

Blue Moon (Photo credit: tonynetone)
“At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don’t really expect it. It’s like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And it’s not so important happy ever after, just that its happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you , and once in a while people may even take your breath away.”
~ Meredith Grey
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August 31, 2012 | Categories: Inspiration, Quotes, Writing | Tags: Arts, Astronomy, Blue moon, Earth, Fairy tale, Farmers Almanac, Full moon, Krakatoa, laney mcmann, Meredith Grey, Moon, Neil Armstrong, Quotes, Sky & Telescope, Solar System | Leave a comment
“Art is the lie that tells the truth.”

Pablo Picasso (Photo credit: marie-ll)
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August 28, 2012 | Categories: Quotes, Writing | Tags: art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Henri Matisse, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Pablo Picasso, Paris, Philosophy, Philosophy of Logic, Quotes, Truth Definitions, Writing Tips | Leave a comment
“This is either madness…or brilliance.” ~Will Turner to Jack Sparrow.
“It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide.” ~Captain Jack Sparrow

One of the best quotes from a movie. Ever.
Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse Of The Black Pearl
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July 6, 2012 | Categories: Blogging, Writing | Tags: Captain Jack Sparrow, Caribbean, History, Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp, laney mcmann, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Quotes, Will Turner | Leave a comment
“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

Eliot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English novelist Mary Anne Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot.
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June 21, 2012 | Categories: Author, Inspiration, Life, Quotes, Writer | Tags: 19th Century, art, Arts, Author, British, George Eliot, laney mcmann, Literature, Mary Ann Evans, Quotes, Victorian era, World Literature, Writer Resources | 2 Comments
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
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March 24, 2012 | Categories: Author, Editing, Inspiration, Quotes, Writer, Writing | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Inspiration, laney mcmann, Quotes, Sylvia Plath, Writing | 2 Comments
“Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant—you just don’t know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you’d mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place.
Trust your demon.”
― Roger Zelazny

Image via Wikipedia
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February 28, 2012 | Categories: Author, Books, Inspiration, Quotes, Reading, Writer, Writing | Tags: goal accomplishment, Inspiration, laney mcmann, novel writing, Quotes, Roger Zelazny, Writers Resources, Writing, Writing process | Leave a comment
“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
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February 21, 2012 | Categories: Quotes, Writing | Tags: Advice on writing a novel, Inspiration, novel writing, Quotes | Leave a comment
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
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January 24, 2012 | Categories: Author, Inspiration, Quotes, Thoughts, Writing | Tags: Author, laney mcmann, Nathaniel Hawthorne, novel writing, Quotes, Writers Resources, Writing | Leave a comment