This is it! The last Writing Wednesday and the second-last day of the entire National Novel Writing Month challenge. While we hope you are on track to complete the goal of 50,000 words, there’s no shame in having fallen behind. To help motivate you to finish strong, we’re turning to some of the world’s most successful authors for advice. Hopefully their words of wisdom will be the inspiration you need to win at this year’s NaNoWriMo.

Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey)

“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.”

C. J. Cherryh (author of Downbelow Station)

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.”

George Orwell (author of Animal Farm)

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

Isaac Asimov (author of I, Robot)

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author of “Nature”)

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

Ray Bradbury (author of Fahrenheit 451)

“Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.”

Doris Lessing (author of The Grass Is Singing)

“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”

John Steinbeck (author of East of Eden)

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

Annie Dillard (author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

“Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (authors of Letters to a Young Poet)

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.”

How do you stay motivated to write?

About Paperblanks: 25 years ago, we created Paperblanks to help keep book heritage alive and vital in our modern age, and to offer an inspiring space for people to express themselves. Thanks for joining us on this journey! For more about Paperblanks, go to our website at paperblanks.com.

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