Hemingway: stop while the going is good.
John Steinbeck: take it a page at a time.
Miranda July: don't worry about the bad drafts.
F. Scott Fitzgerald: don't write and drink.
Muriel Spark*: get a cat.
To all the writers out there, good luck!
Helen Gordon is co-editor of Being A Writer with Travis Elborough, published by Frances Lincoln. Out 7th September and available from all good book retailers and online.
Just to point out the contradiction – Steinbeck "Lose track of the 400 pages " followed by Fitzgerald "…for a novel you need the mental speed that enables you to keep the whole pattern inside your head". It's fine, I think writing is stuffed full of contradictions, it's so utterly multi-faceted, what works in one moment won't work in the next. It just jumped out at me. Maybe because I'm oscillating between the two, myself, at this very moment. Thank you, I like the quotes. Any advice along the way helps the next step, I find, because it's just about keeping going when my head is telling me not to bother.