When I was thinking of a quote to post today for lack of anything else to really write about, I came across one that I find a real encouragement. I did, out of curiosity, read the next one on the list I was going through and decided that the one that followed was just as equally good on the same topic, and so you get two quotes today:
“The more a man writes, the more he can write.” – William Hazlitt
“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” Edgar Rice Burroughs
Perhaps it’s just the influence of my creative writing adviser in college, or perhaps it was somewhere else that I picked up this idea, since there seem to be many authors who feel this way. But just keep writing. Even if it’s bad. Even if it doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere. Just keep writing. You never know; the bad story could later be worked into something brilliant, and the story may lead you somewhere you never expected to go. The latter happens to me all the time. Never let your brain stop conceiving stories; never let your pens run out of ink.
I think it’s interesting how these two quotes can also work in conjunction with each other. If you write one story, yes, it may be bad. If you keep writing more, it’s not only that your odds improve, but your writing will, by the property of the fact that a writer can provide more with practise, but your writing improves as well, and that’s really what makes your chances of producing something really good higher. And I’m just going to leave it at that, before I start getting dreadfully cliche with talk about missing 100 percent of all the shots you never take, so on and so forth.
L.S. Engler 