Engaging in the literary world and discovering what books are out there is always beneficial. Consider the comp hunt both a rite of passage and a learning opportunity—and may the odds be ever in your favor. - Star Wuerdemann

World-building can be as complicated or as simple as your story needs it to be. - Moriah Richard

With third-person limited, we want to ensure that the character’s beliefs are reflected in the narrator’s description of things. Not by necessarily telling us what the character thinks, but by coloring in their fictional world - setting, people, events - with the character’s perspective, informing the words selected. - Peter Mountford

In teaching writing, I’m learning new things about writing. - David B Coe

I don’t try and write strong female characters or strong male characters. I just try and write, hopefully, strong characters and sometimes they happen to be female. - JJ Abrams

You do an awful lot of bad writing in order to do any good writing. Incredibly bad. I think it would be very interesting to make a collection of some of the worst writing by good writers. - William S Burroughs

It is not the task of the writer to 'tell all', or even decide what to leave in, but to decide what to leave out. - Caitlin R. Kiernan

Good writing can be defined as having something to say and saying it well. - Edward Abbey

Don’t participate half-heartedly or use work that you have not yet edited or assume that there is a less talented writing pool participating in the contest. You should prepare for the competition assuming everyone else is taking the process just as seriously as you are. - Ran Walker

Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better…. Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself. - William Zinsser

Editing is a kind of creative activity where, in a perfect world, an author and an editor find that elusive oneness to understand each other intuitively. - Sahara Sanders

For the relationship to work, the writer and editor must respect each other’s expertise and passion. - Rebecca Wenrich Wheeler

Words. Words. I play with words, hoping that some combination, even a chance combination, will say what I want. - Doris Lessing

Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, ‘How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?’ and avoid ‘How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?’ - James Thurber

Editors have to be vicious. They’re working for the reader, not the writer. - Brendan Wolfe

A mystery is solved with a story. The story starts with a clue, but the trouble is that you usually have no idea what the clue is, even if you think you know. - Lemony Snicket

People underestimating me is my secret weapon. - James Patterson

Think of every character as a main character. They believe they’re the main characters in their stories. No one should be just an obstacle. - Ben Edlund

A mentor empowers a person to see a possible future, and believe it can be obtained. - Shawn Hitchcock

There is something inherently hopeful in unlikely friendships, I think. It speaks to our ability to surprise and connect - and how, in all the ways that matter, we are not really that different. - Emily Spurr