23 Best Writing Quotes From Writer’s Digest Magazine in 2023

I love getting new issues of Writer’s Digest, and I LOVE marking up my new issues of Writer’s Digest with my highlighters! Each issue is filled with Post-It notes, dog-eared pages, and highlighted quotes.

(Subscribe to future issues of Writer’s Digest here.)

There are probably at least 23 highlighted quotes in each issue of the magazine, because each issue is packed with so much great advice from experienced writers, debut authors, literary agents, editors, and more. And, speaking for myself, highlighting (and even writing out) quotes helps me remember them better.

One of the other editors probably has their own list of 23 other quotes, but this is my favorite 23 writing and publishing quotes from the print magazine in 2023 (and I might’ve even snuck in an extra quote, because I love consistency). When you get a moment, try reading through all the 2023 issues as well and look forward to more great advice in 2024!

January/February 2023: Finding Success “Inside” the Box

“To give my characters depth, I needed to get to know them past who they were in my stories. What I began doing was spending days with my characters in my head. It went beyond simply asking my characters interview questions and delved deep into understanding who they were in their everyday lives. While I still did character-developing exercises—like interviews—what really took my characters beyond the surface was spending time with them and listening to them.” —Aigner Loren Wilson from “How I Punched Up My Fiction to Get Out of the Slush Pile”

“Nobody should feel obliged to put something deeply personal, whether related to their identity or to an event, on the page for public consumption.” —Whitney Hill from “Writing What You Know: Yourself”

“Rather than avoiding tropes, perhaps writers should consider the way many readers love to read them, and instead strive to make their tropes unique, or upend expectations.” —Jordan Rosenfeld from “Tropes and Why We Love Them”

“There’s no shortage of ideas. It’s the execution of the idea that matters. And I think that’s true for almost anything in society. I think ideas may be overrated because you can sit on a couch and have an idea. And then someone else has the idea and makes it happen. … So, for me, it’s not the idea of what I would write about. It’s, ‘Can I execute it in a manner that the reader deserves from me?'” —Neil deGrasse Tyson from “The WD Interview”

(Get the January/February 2023 issue of Writer’s Digest here.)

March/April 2023: Exploring Genre Fiction

“Writing can be a lonely journey, so find a group in person or online to join along the way. These communities can help you polish your work, but they can also serve as a sounding board or even support group during those long months of silence.” —Christopher Stollar from “Tips for Transitioning in Publishing”

“You’ll probably always be your own worst critic, but you won’t likely be a fair one—don’t be afraid to seek (and apply) feedback from trusted sources, while remembering that outside of true errors, it’s all subjective. Good or bad, they are all just opinions—ultimately, you have to do what best honors your voice as a writer.” —Christina C. Jones from “IndieLab”

“The design of your website should reflect your book’s genre in some way. It must appeal to your ideal reader. If your genre is science fiction, you’ll want to include the kind of science that relates to your book. Instead of roses and fairy-tale landscapes, you’ll incorporate images of telescopes and nebulas. If you’re a horror writer, you might use a shadowy theme with monsters and streams of blood. If you’re a children’s writer, you can appeal to a more playful mindset using primary colors and child-like fonts.” —Kim Catanzarite from “The Importance of Genre”

“I think that magic is always a metaphor, right? But I think to write fantasy, it has to also be magic. I think the ways it is understood as metaphor are important. Magic is always saying something that’s allowing you to look at something slanted.” —Holly Black from “The WD Interview”

(Get the March/April 2023 issue of Writer’s Digest here.)

May/June 2023: Keeping It Short

“Write without worrying about what will sell.” —Ismita Hussain from “Meet the Agent”

“The best advice I can give you when creating your elevator pitch is to learn the difference between describing your plot vs. explaining your plot. A pitch (no matter what kind) needs to leave the audience with an idea of the premise and stakes. That’s it. This isn’t the place for backstory, secret motives, or why you wrote the book.” —Amy Collins from “The Four Elements”

“I believe I have a career as an essayist because of how I have learned to end my stories. This is where you deliver your gift: the clear, emotional destination toward which your essay is moving. This is where you answer the reader’s question: Why have you told me this story?” —William Kenower from “A Good Ending”

“Remember that when you’re writing that first thing, you’re in an incredibly precious time. When you’re writing that book or that early story, write for yourself first and foremost. There’s going to come a time when that won’t be the case anymore, when there are going to be all these people who are involved. So, don’t be in any great hurry to publish or to get it out there into the world. Take your time to hone and craft that first book. Appreciate those early years where you’re writing for yourself because it never is quite the same once you start publishing.” —Brandon Taylor from “The WD Interview”

(Get the May/June 2023 issue of Writer’s Digest here.)

July/August 2023: Creating Structure

“Emptying your mind lowers obstacles and frees creative thought. We live in a world where we push ourselves to accomplish so much each day, almost per hour, including writing. Stopping that momentum periodically is medicinal and crumbles walls you may not even know you had.” —C. Hope Clark from “The Right vs. Left Brain Dilemma”

“There’s no need to plan everything out beforehand. Part of the fun is setting up high stakes without knowing the outcome. This way you’ll be right there with your protagonist, struggling to come up with solutions, even as the walls close in deliciously around you.” —Julia Bartz from “Writers on Writing”

“Just because we are aware of the need for the inciting incident doesn’t mean we shouldn’t spend the time carefully crafting how we arrive at this point.” —Ran Walker from “This Changes Everything”

“Let’s face it, there are people who want to be famous. There are people who want to be rich. And I always warn them, neither of those is likely to happen. It could happen, but this is a hard way to do it. You should learn to play guitar and go burn your amps on stage. It can be difficult, but we can’t stop ourselves. When you know someone who cannot not do it, that’s some sacred thing.” —Luis Alberto Urrea from “The WD Interview”

(Get the July/August 2023 issue of Writer’s Digest here.)

September/October 2023: Facing the Mysterious

“Landing an agent or book deal is a huge accomplishment but it isn’t a happily ever after thing. It’s the start of a business venture with peaks and valleys. If you continue to grow as a writer, ‘hook’ generator, and entrepreneur, you have a chance at a long career.” —Connor Eck from “Writer’s Digest 2023 Annual Literary Agent Roundup”

“Not all reveals serve the story best if maintained throughout; sometimes you gain more narrative mileage by spilling the beans sooner, so readers see the aftereffects of the secret and its impact on the characters and story.” —Tiffany Yates Martin from “The Big Reveal”

“We have to get lost in the forests. We have to allow for the ugliness. We have to invite it, even. In the early drafts, your characters may reveal themselves to you in flashes, whispers, or echoes as you chase them through the trees. They might be lost in the mist themselves. It’s OK not to see them yet through the fog. That’s part of the process.” —Jennifer Givhan from “Writing Our Way Into (and out of) Dark Forests”

“I like to read craft books myself and I find value in them. Whether you’re talking Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Anne Lamott … these are books that even if I don’t agree with every piece of, that’s fine. It’s weird that people who don’t agree decide it’s bad advice. It’s just advice that isn’t for you.” —Chuck Wendig from “The WD Interview”

(Get the September/October 2023 issue of Writer’s Digest here.)

November/December 2023: Making Readers Laugh

“It helps to think of your first few books as a hobby, not a business. People will spend hundreds on a hobby with no expectation of making it back, but authors think $250 for a book cover is wasting money. Just because you can indie publish for free doesn’t mean you should. Put money into a hobby account while you’re still writing so you can pay for an inexpensive cover and editing when the time comes.” —Roland Denzel from “IndieLab”

“Effective humor has everything to do with your knowledge of the subject—in order to make fun of something effectively, you have to understand it on a fairly deep level. But the other aspect of effective humor is shared knowledge—your audience has to know as much about your subject as you do, or the jokes will fall flat.” —Jeff Somers from “From the Heart”

“There are two reasons I support mistake-making. First, we know that failure means we tried. It also means if the mistake is wrong enough, we can make someone laugh.” —Jorjeana Marie from “The First Laugh”

“When you are revising your work, it’s a long path to go from conception to a finished project. A lot of times, there’s a lot of feedback along the way, or you are not sure how to change it, how to improve it, how to do X, Y, and Z. Once you get a little more professional, people are saying things like, ‘Well, this really has to fit more into the thriller format.’ Sometimes, what they’re telling you actually is right, and you have to be as flexible as you can in hearing the feedback you’re getting. But the thing I always say to writers is that you never should forget the flame that made you want to write this.” —Jean Kwok from “The WD Interview”

(Get the November/December 2023 issue of Writer’s Digest here.)