Literary Birthday – 10 May – Barbara Taylor Bradford

Happy Birthday, Barbara Taylor Bradford, born 10 May 1933.

10 Quotes On Writing

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. I think women like to read about other women who succeed.
5. You must use your imagination. You can go to school to learn grammar and write prose, but no one can teach you creativity.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. I know people say I write about women who are rich, but that is not really true. I write about women who become successful.
10. ‘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

by Amanda Patterson

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