Do you ever feel like you need a “kick in the pants” to inspire or motivate you to move forward? I know I do!

Finding the inspiration to write can be challenging for freelance writers because our craft requires a lot of energy, creativity and willpower. I talked about this a bit in my post, How to Become a Successful Freelance Writer When You Don’t Believe in Yourself.  It’s easy for freelancers to get caught up in the ebbs and flows of life, forgetting why we became writers in the first place. Sound familiar?

Writers regularly come to me and ask how they can stay inspired and motivated. I soon realized this was a common thread among aspiring writers. So today I wanted to share with you some of the quotes for freelance writers that have helped me, and hopefully they can help you too.

Print them out, post them on your bathroom mirror, your computer— wherever you can see them!

But, just a reminder: true motivation can only occur if you want to be motivated.

You have to be willing to pull yourself up when you’re feeling down. Only then will you be able to overcome any negativity or doubts you might have about using your talent to create a nice income through freelance writing.

It’s not uncommon for freelance writers to be afraid to put their work out there. Thankfully, you can overcome your fears and increase your confidence in yourself if you know how to do it.

Important: Many of these quotes are motivational but some of them may be serious, ironic, humorous or a combination of these four.

Enjoy!

1. The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. – William Faulkner

2. It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
– Robert Benchley

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4. Learn as much by writing as by reading. – Lord Acton

5. All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath. – F. Scott Fitzgerald

6. I’m lucky because the strongest emotion I have ever felt is love, and that definitely informs my writing. – Ben Elton

7. Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. – E.L. Doctorow

8. Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it’s right, it’s easy. It’s the other way around, too. If it’s slovenly written, then it’s hard to read. It doesn’t give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader. – Maya Angelou

9. Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. – Meg Rosoff

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11. Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good. – William Faulkner

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13. Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone. – Amy Tan

14. Writing is an antidote for loneliness. – Steven Berkoff

15. A wounded deer leaps the highest. – Emily Dickinson

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17. My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living. – Anias Nin

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19. Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar. – E.B. White

20. Writers sometimes give up what is most strange and wonderful about their writing – soften their roughest edges – to accommodate themselves toward a group response. – Mary Oliver

21. I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. – James A. Michener

22. Writing is nothing more than a guided dream. – Jorge Luis Borges

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24. Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing. – Mark Haddon

25. When I write I try as far as possible to forget I’m writing it at all. I tell it down onto the page, as if I’m telling it to one person only, my best friend. – Michael Morpurgo

26. The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from. – Gene Fowler

27. Half my life is an act of revision. – John Irving

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29. There’s an ecstatic side to writing. It’s like jazz. It just has a life. – Alice Walker

30. Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love. – Ray Bradbury

31. Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. – Theodore Roosevelt

32. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. – Arthur Ashe

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34. That isn’t writing at all, that’s typing. – Truman Capote

35. History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it. – Winston Churchill

36. Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about. – Marilyn Hacker

37. And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
– William Shakespeare (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

38. The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain

39. We may encounter defeats but we must not be defeated. – Maya Angelou

40. Don’t watch the clock. Do what it does; keep going. – Sam Levenson

41. You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. – C.S. Lewis

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43. I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. – Anne Frank

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45. It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. – Ernest Hemingway

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47. You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. – Jack London

48. The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. – Anias Nin

49. The purpose of a writer is to prevent civilization from destroying itself. – Albert Camus

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There you have it!

Now it’s your turn…

Do you have any quotes to share? From you or anyone known?

Share them in the comments and I will create a new blog and list all of yours!