“The professions of novelist and journalist are very separate. As a novelist, you are ultimately working for yourself. Yes, you need the approval of a publisher and an audience, but what is valued in fiction writing - style, individual voice, insight - is scorned by the editor who is combing through your newspaper article.” NeedsWritingIndividualVoiceFictionAudienceStyleInsightProfessionNewspapersJournalistNovelistsEditorsArticlesApprovalPublishersFiction WritingWriting StyleScorned Author:Jon Weisman
“It is simply much easier to infuse life, feeling, and higher truth into a novel than a non-fiction work, to find the license to write truth without being wedded to fact.” WritingFactsFeelingsFictionNovelHigherEasierLicenseNon Fiction Author:Jon Weisman
“You can't be wrong in journalism. Take a wrong turn in journalism, and you are writing fiction. You can take a wrong turn in poetry, and something wonderful can happen.” WritingHappensTurnsFictionWonderfulJournalismWriting FictionWrong Turn Author:Eliza Griswold
“Academic writing you have to get right. Fiction you have to get plausible. And there's a world of difference.” WorldWritingDifferencesFictionAcademicPlausibleAcademic Writing Author:Elliott Colla
“When you're writing your own fiction, you don't have to ride two horses.” WritingTwoFictionHorse Author:Elliott Colla
“If I have learned how to write fiction it's by working with great writers and getting them to explain their craft to me so that I can do it in English.” IfsWritingI CanCan DoFictionCraftsI Have LearnedGreat WritersI Can Do It Author:Elliott Colla
“Now that I no longer feel lonely, and now that my own past feels resolved in a whole new and very deep way, I am excited to write about the real world, to stay in it. Fiction is an escape, a parallel life, and it was a powerful source of comfort for me when my own life was raw and uncomfortable. I don't feel the burning need to disappear into a fictional character these days.” WorldWayNeedsFeelsWritingRealWholeCharacterPastMy OwnPowerfulFictionSourceComfortLonelyExcitedDisappearBurningThese DaysUncomfortableReal WorldParallelsMy Own LifeVery DeepFeeling LonelyFictional CharacterParallel Lives Author:Kate Christensen
“I love outsider stories. And I also like a lot of genre fiction, too. So I wanted to write a literary book that flirted with thriller and fantasy and even science fiction. I wanted the coming-of-age story and the love story to be about "outsiderdom" - one of the themes I am most interested in.” WritingBookStoriesAgeWantedFictionFantasyScience FictionLove StoryGenreThemeComing Of AgeOutsidersThrillers Author:Porochista Khakpour
“I love to read and teach experimental fiction but yes, neither this work nor my first novel is really that experimental. It uses some experimental techniques but in the end, I would not say that it is experimental. I'm not sure why. I do a lot of writing on my own, and I have always just written this way.” WayWritingFirstsEndsUseMy OwnFictionTeachNovelWrittenTechniqueNot SureLove To Read Author:Porochista Khakpour
“I do believe we are actors in our own dramas, which, moment by moment, we ourselves write; that we are characters in our own fictions or those devised for us by someone or something else.” WritingBelieveMomentsCharacterActorsFictionDrama Author:Norman Lock
“I find it only natural for a storyteller to be interested in storytelling and, for anyone who spends the better part of his or her life writing fiction, it is hardly surprising that the pleasures, worries, and mechanics of fiction-making should enter the work.” ShouldWritingNaturalPleasureFictionWorryStorytellingSurprisingStorytellerMechanicWriting Fiction Author:Norman Lock
“As a writer who writes poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, I think it's important to always maintain a firm grasp on genre and ethics.” ThinkingWritingImportantFictionEthicsGenreFirmNonfiction Author:Kathleen Rooney
“So for a long time, I did a lot of freelance writing in addition to writing fiction and such - I was a food critic for a magazine for a bit, I did writing for nonprofits and political things, I was the editorial consultant for another magazine for a couple years, all sorts of jobs.” WritingYearsLongJobsPoliticalBitsFictionCoupleLong TimeCriticsMagazinesEditorialsWriting FictionConsultantsNonprofits Author:Tod Goldberg
“They [academy writing programs] have no concept that the world has changed, that publishing has changed, that filmmaking has changed, and if you're not constantly looking at your education model and adjusting for the change, you'll find yourself teaching antiquity. Like all of these programs that won't accept students who are writing genre fiction - what an institutional ego!” IfsWorldWritingFictionAcceptingTeachingChangedStudentsEgoModelsConceptsProgramGenreFinding YourselfFilmmakingPublishingAcademyAntiquityAdjusting Author:Tod Goldberg
“I've had many students over the years, sometimes even very sophisticated students, who will be writing and will hit a wall. Often I find it's because they're working out of sequence. Maybe some people can do that, but I don't think that's how fiction works. It's a discovery.” PeopleThinkingWritingYearsSometimesCan DoFictionStudentsWallDiscoveryWork OutWorking ItSophisticatedSequence Author:T.C. Boyle
“The Israel stories were really hard for me to write, because I think that my book is very much about politics, but it isn't political. It really was important for me to not have a political agenda at all, because I have a hard time stomaching any political fiction that feels message-y.” ThinkingFeelsWritingImportantBookHardStoriesPoliticalFictionMessagesIsraelHard TimesAgendasPolitical Agendas Author:Molly Antopol
“The idea of the writer who writes nineteen novels, with various ups and downs and levels of experimentation, isn't around so much now. There's a focus, I think, on fewer books, with more pressure on each book to succeed. With that there comes, I think, a certain pressure towards shapeliness in fiction. Towards neatness. And I think writers feel that, and it can effect how they write.” ThinkingFeelsWritingBookIdeasCertainLevelsFictionNovelFocusEffectsSucceedPressureVariousFewerUps & DownsExperimentationNineteenNeatness Author:Chad Harbach
“I always say writing fiction isn't something you teach. It's something you do, and only experimentation - i.e. doing it, either badly or good sometimes - can help anybody get any better or worse at it.” WritingSometimesHelpingFictionTeachExperimentationWriting Fiction Author:Peter Orner
“Fiction and screenwriting blend for me. I feel like being a TV writer/screenwriter has definitely made my fiction writing better, although I have less time to do it.” FeelsWritingMadeFictionTvsScreenwritersFiction WritingScreenwriting Author:Nick Antosca
“What you create when you're teaching fiction writing is a kind of literary salon, not a social club or a mutual admiration society, not a debating society, not a repair shop, not a fight club or a soap box. It's a place to have a conversation about a story.” WritingKindStoriesFightingSocialFictionTeachingConversationBoxesClubsShopsMutualAdmirationSoapFiction WritingSalonsMutual Admiration Author:John Dufresne
“The first time I took a fiction writing class was sophomore year. And I just found myself taking that extremely seriously, in a way that I didn't take anything else seriously. So I guess that was the start of it.” WayWritingYearsFirstsFoundFictionClassFirst TimeFiction WritingSophomoreSophomore Year Author:John Brandon
“It's much harder when you're writing about your life, than when you're writing fiction.” WritingFictionHarderWriting Fiction Author:Leigh Newman
“I do write fiction, and I find it more difficult, but also more liberating. On the one hand, you can make up the story, but you have to make up the story.” WritingStoriesHandsDifficultFictionLiberating Author:Emily Susan Rapp
“I sometimes get asked if I think about film stuff while I'm writing fiction, and the answer is, of course not.” IfsThinkingWritingSometimesFilmCoursesStuffAnswersFictionWriting Fiction Author:Matthew Specktor
“Much to my surprise, there's a sense for people in the cable industry that fiction writers might actually be good at script writing. You can write dialogue!” PeopleWritingMightFictionIndustrySurpriseScriptsBe GoodDialogueCablesFiction Writers Author:Matthew Specktor
“I don't really have those kinds of intentions when I write a scene. I try to follow the internal logic of the fiction, rather than make an argument or an assertion.” WritingTryingKindFictionSceneArgumentLogicIntentionInternalsAssertion Author:Rachel Kushner
“I more seriously considered publishing it under a pseudonym than I considered publishing it as fiction. I think the decision to write it as nonfiction happened at the very outset of the process, because the overwhelming impetus for writing this book was to understand what the experience meant, and to override my own reductions and rationalizations, whatever story I had that was not true. It didn't sit well with me and I needed to answer that. That's sort of the reason I write everything.” ThinkingWritingWellsBookReasonStoriesProcessMy OwnDecisionAnswersFictionHappenedNeededOverwhelmingNonfictionPublishingReductionImpetusPseudonyms Author:Melissa Febos
“If you're a writer, you don't serve genres. Genres serve you. Like, if you're writing a science fiction story set on a spaceship, you don't have to have someone thrown out an airlock.” IfsWritingStoriesFictionScience FictionGenreThrownSpaceshipsFiction Stories Author:Charlie Jane Anders
“The tales are quite hard to remember and I found that going back to it between bouts of writing fiction, I was having to retrace my steps quite a lot, because the stories are very intricate and the material is elusive, and possibly with age, my memory is not as malleable as it used to be.” WritingHardStoriesAgeRememberUsedFoundMemoriesFictionStepsMaterialsTalesUsed To BeElusiveIntricateWriting Fiction Author:Marina Warner
“When I write a book I write the best that I can and so much of that for me is following the book's demands, the subject's requirements - I love books, I always have. They have always been one of the places where I have felt very happy in the world. When I was younger, I loved to read genre fiction - I loved the magic-carpet ride of story! Now I need other things - I need the beautiful particular and strange language and form which brings a writer's book to life in me and speaks to my intellect, and, dare I say it, to my soul.” WorldNeedsWritingI CanBookSoulStoriesBeautifulFormSpeakLanguageFeltFictionMagicSubjectsParticularStrangeDemandFollowingDareIntellectMy SoulGenreRequirementsVery HappyCarpet Author:Micheline Aharonian Marcom
“I suppose most writers are following Twain's advice to tackle what they know, and my own readings habits drew me to writers who seemed to be writing honestly from their own experiences, whether they presented it in the guise of fiction or not.” KnowsWritingReadingMy OwnFictionAdviceHabitFollowingHonestlyGuiseReading Habits Author:Kevin Keck
“Historical novels are about costumery. I think that's the magic and mystery of fiction. I don't want to write historical fiction but I do want the story to have the feel of history. There's a difference.” ThinkingWantFeelsWritingStoriesDifferencesFictionNovelMagicMysteryHistoricalHistorical FictionHistorical Novels Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I had a long writing history behind me before I got into anything in film. It comprehended science fiction, it comprehended historical, it comprehended, you know, just about everything that you can think of.” ThinkingKnowsWritingLongFilmBehindsFictionScience FictionHistoricalWriting History Author:William Monahan
“Utopian fiction is really boring. I had to read a lot of it, and it's not that much fun. But they're fascinating to me as historical documents. Cabet [Icaria's founder and author of the utopian novel, Travels in Icaria], is writing in the 1830s, and his idea of the perfect society reveals a lot about his time. But his book is uniquely bad.” WritingBookIdeasFunPerfectFictionNovelHistoricalBoringFascinatingFoundersDocumentsUtopianPerfect Society Author:Christine Jennings
“I definitely want to write some fiction, for sure. I already have half of the next book. I already have it all mapped out. I'm ready. I'm ready to bring it to the world.” WorldWantWritingBookNextHalfFictionReady Author:Moshe Kasher
“All of a sudden, I sort of started to feel that I was constrained by the characters as opposed to enjoying them. And that remains for me to this day the line that I know where it's like, OK, you're not writing fan fiction anymore.” KnowsFeelsWritingCharacterEnjoyLinesFictionFansRemainsThis Day Author:Naomi Novik
“It's my experience that people don't think of fiction writing as being as intellectually serious as other kinds of writing in academia and so without a career as a critic or essayist you can be treated as something of a spiritual medium - a fraud - for "just" writing fiction.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindSpiritualFictionCareersSeriousCriticsTreatedMediumsFraudAcademiaFiction WritingWriting FictionEssayists Author:Alexander Chee
“I grew up treating a life as a writer as a career in letters, one devoted to many kinds of writing. And so it seemed normal to study both fiction writing and the literary essay as an undergrad.” WritingKindFictionCareersStudyGrewNormalGrew UpLettersDevotedEssaysFiction Writing Author:Alexander Chee
“I'm not a literary writer who is wedded to notions of realism and fiction. I believe that you can write anything if you can feel it convincingly.” IfsFeelsWritingBelieveI BelieveFictionNotionRealism Author:Christopher Rice
“I like writing non-fiction - and when you pick a [non-fiction] subject, it saves you the hassle of coming up with a plot.” WritingFictionSubjectsPicksPlotNon FictionHassle Author:Richard Hell
“From about the age of 15 or 16 I'd had the notion that I wanted to write fiction, and I'd done enough in college to satisfy myself that I had a knack for it - I wouldn't call it "talent" - though I wondered if I'd ever have the guts to actually commit to it.” IfsWritingDoneEnoughAgeWantedFictionTalentCollegeNotionCommitGutsKnack Author:Ben Fountain
“For a long time, I missed being in the courtroom every day. I missed trial work. It was so much a part of my life. It was what I did and who I was. But over the years I did find the opportunity to realize my childhood dream of writing crime fiction.” WritingYearsLongDreamOpportunityRealizingFictionChildhoodCrimeLong TimeTrialsWorking ItCrime FictionCourtroomChildhood Dreams Author:Marcia Clark
“When I taught at the University of Houston in the Creative Writing program we required the poets to take workshops in fiction writing and we required the fiction writers to take workshops in poetry. And the reason for that is because the fiction writers seemed to need to learn how to pay greater attention to language itself, to the way that language works.” WayNeedsWritingReasonLanguagePayAttentionFictionCreativeGreaterTaughtPoetProgramUniversityCreative WritingWorkshopsFiction WritingFiction WritersHouston Author:Edward Hirsch
“I think the deepest thing is that many fiction writers tell stories but are not elegant writers. But, we're not writing journalism when we're making literature.” ThinkingWritingStoriesLiteratureFictionJournalismElegantFiction Writers Author:Edward Hirsch
“I always knew I wanted to write really imaginative fiction - fiction that was very different from my real life.” WritingDifferentRealWantedFictionReal LifeImaginative Author:Danielle Trussoni
“I want to write some books. Books that have nothing to do with music, just some fiction type of books for a whole different audience of people.” PeopleWantWritingBookDifferentWholeFictionAudienceType Author:Jhene Aiko
“One of the things I've been talking about with my critical writing and my own work is that these movies are seen differently in a theatrical space. It's very important to me. I edit films to be seen theatrically, like fiction material I've worked on like Listen Up Phillip or other documentaries.” WritingImportantFilmMy OwnSpaceFictionTalkingMaterialsCriticalDocumentariesEditsTheatrical Author:Robert Greene
“The best writing advice I ever got was "Keep moving forward, don't retreat into rewrites." The worst came from a book that said "Writing fiction is like telling lies," which just seems stupid to me.” WritingSaidBookSeemsMovingLyingFictionWorstAdviceStupidMoving ForwardRetreatKeep MovingKeep Moving ForwardWriting AdviceWriting FictionTelling Lies Author:David B. Coe