Literary Birthday – 10 October – Nora Roberts

Happy Birthday, Nora Roberts, born 10 October 1950.

Nora Roberts’ Top 10 Quotes on Writing

Every time I hear writers talk about ‘the muse,’ I just want to bitch-slap them. It’s a job. Do your job.
The most important thing in writing is to have written. I can always fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank one.
A writer must understand, appreciate, and enjoy whatever genre he or she is trying to write in. It’s a mistake, a really big mistake, to believe that you can write what you wouldn’t read for pleasure.
The middles of my books are often the toughest for me to write. If the pacing flags, I deal with the problem by looking around at all my characters and figuring out which one I can kill.
A writer never finds the time to write. A writer makes it. If you don’t have the drive, the discipline, and the desire, then you can have all the talent in the world, and you aren’t going to finish a book.
And each book has to receive your best effort every single time. No slacking.
If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.
Good fiction creates its own reality.
As a rule of thumb, I’d say one cliché per [Romance]—and then be damn sure you can make it work. But if you’re going to try to write the virginal amnesiac twin disguised as a boy mistaken for the mother (or father depending how well the disguise works) of a secret baby, honey, you better have some serious skills. Or seek therapy.
I’m not interested in telling stories about weak women … Or if they’re weak, I want to show how they grow and how they become strong.

Must-Read: Nora Roberts On How She Writes

Nora Roberts is an American author. She has written more than 209 best-selling romance novels. She writes as J.D. Robb for the In Death series, and has also written under the pseudonyms, Jill March and Sarah Hardesty. She was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Over 500 million copies of her books are in print. Some of her latest books include Genuine Lies, Stars of Fortune, The Next Always, and Black Hills.

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by Amanda Patterson