12 Quotes To Nurture Your Author Mindset (Part One)

It takes a skilled and practiced person to stop being them and become someone else. Even on paper. Especially on paper. If eyes are the window to a person's soul, stories are the books to their heart. 

That's why we, as authors, must be mindful of what goes on in our, well, minds. Our interests tend to be what we write about, you know? It'd be pretty strange if you wrote a book featuring a protagonist spider when you hate spiders. 

That's why I went on a hunt for quotes that stood out as ones we should remember. Let's get straight to it!

1. "As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand." -Ernest Hemingway

Source: Tenor

If this was not a quote, I would delete the "as a writer" part. Life would be so much better if everyone understood before judging. Or maybe not judge at all. I know that's idealistic and I probably don't do that as much as I'd like to, but why don't we all try?

Rant aside, understanding why people work is helpful beyond words. Hello character motivation! Hello doing character stuff in general! 

Always ask yourself why someone is doing what they're doing. What brought them to it? How did their past affect their present? 

It can also apply to facts too. Don't judge why science is so mind boggling or why maths is so boring, understand how it works. 

2. "All great authors are seers." -George Henry Lewes

Source: Giphy

"Seers" can be defined in many ways. Dictionary.com defines it as "a person who sees; observer"

and as "a person endowed with profound moral and spiritual insight or knowledge; a wise person or sage who possesses intuitive powers."

Authors should do both. We need to observe the world. How does it work? Why does it work? What makes it work? What's doing the working? These ticks that the world run by are fascinating. You could spend years watching and it is highly unlikely you've noticed everything. Anything you see and observe can be translated into words. How to translate is a topic for another post.

As for the second definition, it's not necessary. But it's 100% worth it, as Lewes states by "all great authors". I talk about it a lot. And here. And here too. Your message matters. The truth you discover needs to be shared. I've already covered it in the links a sentence ago, so I won't go over it again. 

3. "The writer is by nature a dreamer - a conscious dreamer." -Carson McCullers

It's all well and good to be a logical, realistic person. I'd even go so far as to say that it's necessary. I know, I know. How could you say that, Liz? Always daydreaming. 

But without dreaming, how can you write anything but memoirs or biographies? Observe, yes, but also dream. The dreams we have while sleeping are just as important as day dreaming. If dreams weren't important, why else would so many books, film and games be about following your dreams? Use your imagination!

Source: Giphy

4. "Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one can tell the stories you have to tell." -Charles de Lint

After all the rap about observing and imagining, you now to realise that the only one who sees what you see is you. It's one of the few things completely unique to humans. 

What you see behind the bully is not the same as the person next to you. Sure, you might agree they had a bad childhood, but the specifics would be different. Ideas and impressions, might be the same but interpretations vary. I'd wager there's more variants than the amount of ice cream flavours in the world.

While two authors, or even a million, may have the same idea (very likely), how you tell it will be completely different. That's why we shouldn't be completely cliche-averse. Nor should we be scared to tell a story that you think has already been told. Your take on it is different. Special.

5. "The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe." -Gustave Flaubert

Source: Tenor

Did you know some authors write because they want self discovery? I didn't until a few minutes ago. Like I said in the intro (two hours ago in my time), stories are the books to our hearts. What you believe will be reflected in what you write. It's kinda freaky knowing that readers get a hint of your personal life, but also empowering to know that you are influencing other people. 

It goes both ways. Your books tell others about you, but you can learn things from your own writing. Oftentimes, I find little things I don't remember writing hitting me hard. Majority of these incidences are because your subconscious is trying to tell you something. 

Writing is a journey of discovery. It doesn't matter if you've just started out or have been writing for your whole life. You learn something new every day. 

6. "Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it." -Lloyd Alexander

Source: Tenor

I bet 90% of the population use stories to escape from reality. Sometimes, I use the phrase myself. But I don't believe it's completely true. Neither does Lloyd Alexander, apparently. Mind blowing, I know. 

While fiction is not what is, it's a possibility of what could be. Even the books with the hardest magic system is still grounded in reality in some way. Gravity sucks.  

The best stories take real life situations and spin them around to show a new perspective or at the very least, an old perspective with a fresh take. 

It's this understanding and not judging thing again. We use fiction to express how we should deal with reality. Books are a safe place to live through hell (since we're probably sitting on a couch snacking while watching our poor heroes suffer) and learn. 

~ 

You may have noticed that there's 12 quotes in the title, but I have only discussed 6. Good eye! It's something I wouldn't have noticed. That's because this is part one. And I definitely didn't procrastinate writing this post either. Join me next month in part two!  

What's your opinion on these quotes? Should every author do this? Which ones do you relate to? Leave a comment below. If you liked this post, be sure to share, follow and eat chocolate for more content! (Eat chocolate anyway.)