Discouragement is a writing related illness, especially on days when words don’t flow, characters remain flat, plots are full of holes, or you get another rejection. You can get into a slump, stare at the computer screen for hours and wonder what comes next. Where do you get your inspiration? Where do you go for advice?

Me? Dr. Seuss. Here are some great quotes from the good doctor that can pick us up, get us back on track, or maybe just make us laugh.

1. “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” 

2. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” From: Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

3. “Being crazy isn’t enough.” 

4. “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” 

5. “So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains.”  From: Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

6. “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” 

7. “Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.” 

8. “It all began with a shoe on the wall. A shoe on the wall shouldn’t be there at all.” 

9. “Writing simply means no dependent clauses, no dangling things, no flashbacks, and keeping the subject near the predicate. We throw in as many fresh words we can get away with. Simple, short sentences don’t always work. You have to do tricks with pacing, alternate long sentences with short, to keep it vital and alive…. Virtually every page is a cliffhanger–you’ve got to force them to turn it.” 

10. “Everything stinks till it’s finished.” 

11. “If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn’t show up.” 

And this one sort of discribes my writing life now:

“You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…”  – Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!