Dear Someday Writer Quotes

“As a rule, we don’t write by focusing on one element, say dialogue, but rather, we write the full scene that includes characters, plot, conflict, dialogue, and setting details. They’re intertwined, and if done well, you can’t separate one from the whole. However, as we study writing, we focus on the different elements to help grow the individual skills to improve the whole. The exercises we do become our playground, and the skills we learn come with us when writing a full scene.”
― Cindy Skaggs, Dear Someday Writer: Finish the Damn Book!

“The primary goal of a book coach is to guide writers to a completed book, ensuring they have the tools, motivation, and guidance needed to reach their writing goals. An editor focuses on refining and polishing the manuscript once a substantial draft has been written. They work on improving the clarity, coherence, and overall quality of the text. An editor typically works with a single manuscript rather than providing ongoing support. The book coach is with you for the entire journey.”
― Cindy Skaggs, Dear Someday Writer: Finish the Damn Book!

“Like depression, anxiety, and other mental health struggles, writer’s block happens in your head, and it is real. In the same way we shouldn’t shame or invalidate someone with depression, we shouldn’t ignore or minimize writer’s block to those suffering from it. Having said that, like depression, you can minimize the effects and write again. The first step is recognizing you have a problem.”
― Cindy Skaggs, Dear Someday Writer: Finish the Damn Book!

“They,” whoever the ubiquitous they are, say that if you can quit writing, you should, because who needs this pressure, this angst, this... all the stuff you’re feeling right now? So then only the “real” writers keep going, the ones who can’t quit. I disagree. I think the people who quit didn’t have someone to help them believe in themselves, and so they quit and become reviewers or marketing execs. And they miss writing as if it were a lost library.”
― Cindy Skaggs, Dear Someday Writer: Finish the Damn Book!

“Self-doubt is the dirty truth no one tells you before you start to write, all that hope in your heart. Hold onto that hope, that spark of joy, even when you’re thinking Eeyore thoughts. That’s what gets a writer through it all, that dream and that spark of a story. Focus on what you can control, which is the writing and improving your writing skills.”
― Cindy Skaggs, Dear Someday Writer: Finish the Damn Book!