“Fiction writers are strange beasts. They are, like all writers, observers first and foremost. Everything that happens to and around them is potential material for a story, and they look at it that way.” WayWritingFirstsLooksStoriesHappensFictionStrangeMaterialsBeastObserversFiction Writers Book:Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life Source: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life
“I had been a reporter for 15 years when I set out to write my first novel. I knew how to research an article or profile a subject - skills that I assumed would be useless when it came to fiction. It was from my imagination that the characters in my story would emerge.” WritingYearsFirstsCharacterStoriesWould BeImaginationFictionNovelSubjectsSkillsResearchUselessArticlesReportersMy ImaginationProfile Author:Amy Waldman
“'Kane and Abel' is the best popular fiction of all time. As a kid, I wanted to be prime minister when I read 'First Among Equals.'” FirstsKidsWantedFictionAll TimeMinistersPrimePrime MinisterAbel Author:Louise Mensch
“First and foremost, I consider myself a storyteller. And I'm endlessly fascinated with people, with what they do and why... and how they feel about it. Which means I'm interested in romance fiction. I was drawn to it, as both a reader and a writer, at the very beginning of my career. It's my kind of storytelling.” PeopleFeelsFirstsKindMeanRomanceFictionCareersReaderStorytellingFascinatedStoryteller Author:Debbie Macomber
“The best writing advice I had was [in] ‘Heinlein’s Rules for Writers’ by (American science fiction author) Robert A. Heinlein. His first rule is that you must write, and I was already doing that, but his second rule is, ‘You must finish what you write,’ and that had a big impact on me.” WritingFirstsBigsFictionAdviceImpactScience FictionWriting AdviceBig ImpactRobert Heinlein Author:George R. R. Martin
“Pulp Fiction' was probably one of the first films I ever saw that really kind of took effect on me. I was about four years old - obviously wasn't supposed to be seeing that film; my sister kind of sneaked it out and we got to see it. She's older than me. That was something I always used to watch.” YearsFirstsKindFilmUsedFictionWatchesSawsFourSeeingEffectsSupposed To BeMy SisterFour YearsPulp Author:Aaron Taylor-Johnson
“I first started writing fiction in college because I was attracted to beautiful sentences. I loved to read them. I wanted to write them.” WritingFirstsWantedBeautifulFictionCollegeSentencesWriting Fiction Author:Karen Thompson Walker
“What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.” ShouldFirstsHumansEnoughStoriesHandsSeemsEyeAbleHuman BeingsFictionSituationReaderDrawsCleverDisplayImaginaryCompetentGood StoryHallmarkPsych Author:H. L. Mencken