“I . . . am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever--& of finding my own story & my own people all forestalled.” PeopleStoriesMy OwnHalfNovelFindingsClever Author:Jane Austen
“Since each story presents its own technical problems, obviously one can't generalize about them on a two-times-two-equals-four basis. Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize the most natural way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has defined the natural shape of his story is just this: After reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right.” WayDoeMadeTwoStoriesProblemSeemsFormReadingRealizingImaginationNaturalSilenceFourImagineShapesFindingsTestsBasesAbsolutesFinalsDefinedOrange Author:Truman Capote
“In a very real way, one writes a story to find out what happens in it. Before it is written it sits in the mind like a piece of overheard gossip or a bit of intriguing tattle. The story process is like taking up such a piece of gossip, hunting down the people actually involved, questioning them, finding out what really occurred, and visiting pertinent locations. As with gossip, you can't be too surprised if important things turn up that were left out of the first-heard version entirely; or if points initially made much of turn out to have been distorted, or simply not to have happened at all.” PeopleIfsWayWritingMindFirstsHas BeensMadeImportantRealStoriesHappensTurnsLeftBitsProcessPiecesWrittenHappenedHeardInvolvedFindingsImportant ThingsVersionsGossipHuntingQuestioningLocationVisitingIntriguingLeft OutPertinent Author:Samuel R. Delany
“In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard.” StoriesVoiceHeardFindingsOriginalsDistinctive Author:John Grisham
“You've heard tales of beauty and the beast. How a fair maid falls in love with a monster and sees the beauty of his soul beneath the hideous visage. But you've never heard the tale of the handsome man falling for the monstrous woman and finding joy in her love, because it doesn't happen, not even in a story-teller's tale.” MenLoveSoulStoriesHappensAgeJoyFallHeardFindingsFairsFalling In LoveMonstersTalesBeastHandsomeMonstrousHideousMaidsHandsome Men Author:Karen Maitland
“Making fiction for children, making books for children, isn't something you do for money. It's something you do because what children read and learn and see and take in changes them and forms them, and they make the future. They make the world we're going to wind up in, the world that will be here when we're gone. Which sounds preachy (and is more than you need for a quotebyte) but it's true. I want to tell kids important things, and I want them to love stories and love reading and love finding things out. I want them to be brave and wise. So I write for them.” WorldWantNeedsWritingChildrenImportantBookStoriesKidsFormReadingSoundFictionGoneWiseWindFindingsAnd LoveImportant ThingsBraveLove StoryBe BraveLove Of ReadingChildren Book Author:Neil Gaiman