
Literary Birthday – 10 May – Barbara Taylor Bradford
Happy Birthday, Barbara Taylor Bradford, born 10 May 1933.
10 Quotes On Writing
- First and foremost, you need to be serious about your desire to become a published author. It takes an extraordinary amount of time, effort and dedication to hone your skills and produce a work worthy of publication. But like anything else, if you possess the talent and the determination, you will likely succeed.
- You sit in a room and work hard. Somebody once said to me, and I have never forgotten it, that you can’t be a social butterfly and a bestselling novelist. That is right.
- I find plot ideas just by keeping my eyes open. One day, I saw this blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman walking somewhere, and I started thinking about what her story was and what her problems were.
- I think women like to read about other women who succeed.
- You must use your imagination. You can go to school to learn grammar and write prose, but no one can teach you creativity.
- I usually take a year, sometimes longer, to write a novel. When I am actually writing the book I work seven days a week. Fortunately, I am an early riser, and I get up around 5 a.m. I am usually at my desk by 5:30. I take a short break at noon for a snack, and then continue working until 4 p.m.
- Of course when I am in my office at home I am not always writing. Sometimes I am editing, doing research, re-writing, or thinking. The latter takes most of my time.
- You need to give your characters baggage and a past. Create an outline before you write and when you have a few chapters done, ask all your friends and family members if they have any friends in book publishing. The second step to publishing a novel is finding an agent, which can be difficult, but put your feelers out there. Mention that you’re writing a book to every person you meet. Someone is bound to have a contact who can help you. But the main thing, if you want to be a writer, is to just sit down and start writing.
- I know people say I write about women who are rich, but that is not really true. I write about women who become successful.
- ‘When people say: “I want to write a novel and be rich and famous like you”, I say: “Well, you’re not going to be.” I say it to shock them. That is the wrong motivation. You should want to do the work so much that nothing else matters.
Barbara Taylor Bradford is a best-selling English novelist. Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. It is one of the top-ten bestselling novels of all time. She has written 27 novels.
Source for Image
Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar