“For writers who knowingly lie, for those who substitute unbelievable human behavior for the way people really act, I have nothing but contempt. Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do—to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.
…The people in these stories are not without hope, but they acknowledge that even our fondest hopes (and our fondest wishes for our fellowmen and the society in which we live) may sometimes be vain. Often, even. But I think they also say that nobility most fully resides not in success but in trying to do the right thing… and that when we fail to do that, or willfully turn away from the challenge, hell follows.”
Source: Full Dark, No Stars
“When I look back on my personal story through my journals, it struck me my words had an unmatched power to heal me. To change me.”
Source: The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss
“Writing is a beautiful way to let out pain. When you put your story out there, you release it. Once it is no longer buried or stuck within you, you are free to move forward.”
Source: The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss
“Retrograde mercury is the only enemy that writers have.”
“The pieces are there, but no way he can put them together until this job is done. According to William Wordsworth, the best writing is about strong emotion recalled in tranquility. Billy has lost his tranquility.”
Source: Billy Summers
“They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But if there's a shirtless guy on your cover, or your title includes the words billionaire, alpha-male, werewolf or werebear, your "book" is probably a pile of unimaginative, derivative drivel devoid of a single original thought. Yet another poorly written romance clone the world didn't need.”
Source: The Ugly Truth About Self-Publishing: Not another cookie-cutter contemporary romance
“99% of self-published authors will never make any money with their books.”
Source: The Ugly Truth About Self-Publishing: Not another cookie-cutter contemporary romance
“Our stories are by nature problem-solving tools, and we are problem-solving beings.”
Source: The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss
“Words hurt relationships. Silence kills them.”
“Our lives hang on narrative thread. . . Our world is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves -- what we believe about our lives and what we hold to be true about our world.”
Source: The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss