“As Norman Mailer once put it, the main difference between an experienced and an inexperienced writer is the ability to work on a bad day.”
–Madison Smart Bell’s Narrative Design
Many quotations express this valuable idea in similar ways:
Agatha Christie’s An Autobiography: “There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you’re writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.”
David Halberstam’s Everything They Had: Sports Writing: “There’s a great quote by Julius Irving that went, ‘Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.'”
“A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it. ”
– Alistair Cooke
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
– Colin Powell.
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
– Conrad Hilton.
Writing Fiction 