Best firsts & stories Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I've written short stories in first person, but you have so much more control writing in third person. Third person, you know what everybody's thinking. First person is very limiting, and I could never sustain a first person novel before.”

Thinking Knows Writing Firsts Persons Stories Novel Written Thirds Short Story First Person Third Person Thinking First

Author:Tamora Pierce

“I wrote my first short story for a competition and won second prize. Another competition came up and I won first prize. The first story was published in a newspaper. The second went out on radio.”

Firsts Stories Competition Radio Newspapers Prize Short Story

Author:Ian Rankin

“If I had to choose criteria, for me, it's about first the director. I want to be a part of something that's good and intellectually challenging. After the director it's the character and the story. That's the deal for me.”

Ifs Want Firsts Character Stories Challenges Deals Directors Criteria

Author:Giovanni Ribisi

“I think about everything first. I think about the scenario: the story and the characters, what I'm trying to say and I'll think about that for a couple of days until it's all locked in and then when I get to an instrument it'll just fall out. But the song's kind of all ready there in my head.”

Thinking Trying Firsts Kind Character Stories Song Fall Ready Couple Instruments Locked Scenarios

Author:Graham Russell

“I wrote for years before I was ever published, and I don't think I could ever stop. That said, I was also a veterinarian before I sold my first book, and I still volunteer my time to help with animal welfare causes. So that is a career I would be happy to return to - while still secretly writing strange stories back in my doctor's office.”

“I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.”

Writing Firsts Stories

Author:Nora Roberts

“When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.”

People Knows Writing Firsts Stories Hands Situation Century Originals Familiar Nineteenth Century

Book:Satyajit Ray: Interviews

Source: Satyajit Ray: Interviews

“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.”

Way Writing Firsts Looks Stories Happens Fiction Strange Materials Beast Observers Fiction Writers

Book:Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life

Source: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life

“It can take years. With the first draft, I just write everything. With the second draft, it becomes so depressing for me, because I realize that I was fooled into thinking I'd written the story. I hadn't-I had just typed for a long time. So then I have to carve out a story from the 25 or so pages. It's in there somewhere-but I have to find it. I'll then write a third, fourth, and fifth draft, and so on.”

Thinking Writing Years Firsts Long Stories Realizing Written Pages Long Time Thirds Fourth Depressing Fifth Fooled

Author:David Sedaris

“I always think first about the nature of the story. When I had the idea for 'The Namesake,' I felt that it had to be a novel - it couldn't work as a story.”

Thinking Firsts Ideas Stories Felt Novel Namesake

Author:Jhumpa Lahiri

“First play I ever did was 'Footloose.' I played the part of Willard when I was 16. I think I wore my drama teacher's jeans and her belt - that's how small I was. I know a lot of Willard's back story from the musical that's not explored in the film. Like he's got this whole relationship with his mama, and he sings this song "Mama Says".”

Thinking Knows Firsts Play Whole Stories Film Song Teacher Drama Musical Jeans Belts Mama Footloose

Author:Miles Teller

“I was thinking about what I wanted to write next, after my first novel, and had decided that I wanted to write a story with a lot of strong female characters in it.”

Thinking Writing Firsts Character Stories Wanted Next Strong Novel Female Decided Female Characters Strong Female Characters Strong Female

Author:Joan D. Vinge

“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.”

Writing Years Firsts Character Stories Would Be Imagination Fiction Novel Subjects Skills Research Useless Articles Reporters My Imagination Profile

Author:Amy Waldman

“First person allows deeper insight into the protagonist's character. It allows the reader to identify more fully with the protagonist and to share her world quite intimately. So it suits a story focused on one character's personal journey. However, first person shuts out insights into other characters.”

World Firsts Persons Character Stories Journey Share Reader Deeper Insight Focused Suits First Person Protagonists Personal Journey

Author:Juliet Marillier

“I grew up on the crime stuff. Spillane, Chandler, Jim Thompson, and noir movies like Fuller, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang. When I first showed up in New York to write comics back in the late 1970s, I came with a bunch of crime stories but everybody just wanted men in tights.”

Men Writing Firsts Stories Wanted Stuff Crime New York Grew Late Grew Up Bunch Noir Tights Fritz Lang

Author:Frank Miller

“I was about seven or eight years old when I first heard West Side Story, and it had a huge impact on me. If you look at the elements of that record, it contains many of the things I enjoy doing today.”

Ifs Years Firsts Looks Stories Today Enjoy Sides Records Heard Huge Elements Impact West Seven Eight West Side West Side Story

Author:Steve Vai

“I had these cheap alien toys and I made up stories for them. They were space pirates. They didn’t have names so I made up names. These were the first stories I wrote. Even as a little kid I was thinking about torture.”

Thinking Firsts Littles Made Stories Kids Names Space Aliens Torture Toys Little Kid Pirate Made Up Stories

Author:George R. R. Martin

“We tell each other stories to help each other live. That’s why I read poetry. I read poetry to stay alive. That’s why I went to poetry in the first place, that’s why I stay with it, that’s why I’ll never leave it.”

Firsts Helping Stories Alive Staying Alive Helping Each Other

Author:Marie Howe

“I mean, the first “Back to the Future” is kind of a perfect script, I think. In terms of handling time travel the best, it depends on your definition. To me, that means it effectively uses it in the story.”

Thinking Firsts Kind Mean Stories Use Term Perfect Depends Scripts Definitions Time Travel

Author:Rian Johnson

“I can't think of a story that doesn't have something terrible in it. Otherwise, it's dull. So when I embarked into the world of picture books, my first thought was to do something about the dark.”

Thinking World Firsts I Can Book Stories Dark Terrible Dull Picture Books

Author:Daniel Handler

“My first two novels were set in the past, and that freed me up in a lot of ways; it allowed me to find my way into my story and my characters through research.”

Way Firsts Two Character Stories Past Novel Research My Way

Author:Jennifer Gilmore

“But here is the heart of the moral issue for many of us. Simply put, those around the world who have contributed least to global warming and climate change will be the most and first to be impacted by the consequences of it all. Sadly, it's an old story. We, the affluent, create the problem, and the poor pay the price for our sins. It is wrong, and it is a sin-ours.”

World Firsts Heart Stories Problem Sin Poor Pay Moral Issues Consequence Climate Climate Change Around The World Global Warming Pay The Price Affluent Moral Issues

Author:Jim Wallis

“When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.”

Writing Firsts Book Stories Light Work Morning Cold Warm Every Morning Daily Work

Author:Ernest Hemingway

“My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying . . . one must ruthlessly suppress everything that is not concerned with the subject. If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story.”

Ifs Should Firsts Has Beens Ends Stories Used Lying My Own Written Subjects Wall Gun Concerned Crosses Chapters Hanging On

Author:Anton Chekhov

“The first author I remember being obsessed by, actually realizing 'I like the way he writes and I like the way he tells stories,' was C.S. Lewis and the 'Narnia' books.”

Way Writing Firsts Book Stories Remember Realizing Obsessed Narnia

Author:Neil Gaiman

“When the next generation of content is developed, we have to think in a totally different way. Think about it more symbolically. The main story that you see on the TV screen is maybe like the living room of a house. But there are various other rooms in this house that you will otherwise never see. But if you use the Internet, you find out what's in the attic. And if you use the cell phone, you find out what's on the first floor. And on another medium, you find out what's in the cellar.”

“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.”

Should Firsts Humans Enough Stories Hands Seems Eye Able Human Beings Fiction Situation Reader Draws Clever Display Imaginary Competent Good Story Hallmark Psych

Author:H. L. Mencken

“The exchange rate between first-world lives and third-world lives in disaster stories in the media is about 50:1.”

World Firsts Stories Media Thirds Rate Disaster Third World World Life

Author:Craig Reucassel

“People need to take as much interest in other sports as they take in cricket, and that's where we come across a vicious cycle of performance, sponsorship, recognition, jobs and TV visibility. It's a typical chicken-and-egg story; each one is directly related to the other without an answer for what comes first.”

“I think I realized very early on that you can spend a lot of time constructing a really perfect scene in final draft and just end up throwing it away because you didn't figure out that mathematics of the story first.”

Thinking Firsts Ends Stories Perfect Figures Scene Mathematics Finals I Realized Throwing

Author:Brit Marling

“The first paragraph. The last paragraph. That's where the story is going and how it's going to end. Or else you'll go off in a hundred different directions.”

Firsts Different Ends Stories Lasts Hundred Paragraph Different Directions

Book:Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson

Source: Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson

“I have really seen the best in people and I've absolutely seen the worst in people. And I'm happy to say that most of the time I have been seeing the best of people in the first congressional district and connecting with voters and seeing what's important to them hearing their stories and what they want to see happen.”

People Want Firsts Has Beens Important Stories Happens Seeing Worst Hearing Voters Connecting What's Important

Author:Rob Zerban

“Anytime I've ever been involved in a non-linear story, you see it in a linear manner first, just to make sure it makes sense, and then you chop it up and move it around.”

Firsts Stories Moving Involved Make Sense Linear

Author:Zack Snyder

“The first step to finding a God-written love story is handing the pen to the true Author of romance.”

Firsts Stories Romance Steps Written Findings Love Story Pens First Steps

Book:Authentic Beauty, Going Deeper: A Study Guide for the Set-Apart Young Woman

Source: Authentic Beauty, Going Deeper: A Study Guide for the Set-Apart Young Woman

“There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It's tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don't think conceptually while I work on a first draft -- I just write. To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar. But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.”

Thinking Knows Want Should Writing Trying Firsts Littles Ideas Stories Lines One Thing Theory Reader Tough Opening Invites Tricky Jars Moonbeams

Author:Stephen King

“As we've said, it's not a coincidence that Fear Itself, Schism, and other big stories end at the same time. This is the first brick in the next road.”

Firsts Said Ends Stories Bigs Next Coincidence Bricks Schism

Author:Tom Brevoort

“In creating the strange milieu in which your story takes place, you must first understand as well as you possibly can the familiar milieu in which your own life is taking place. Until you have examined and comprehended the world around you, you can't possibly create a complex and believable imaginary world.”

World Firsts Wells Stories Life Is Strange Creating Complexes Familiar Imaginary Believable Milieu Imaginary World

Book:How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

Source: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

“If it isn't a wonderful story first, who cares how "important" it is?”

Ifs Firsts Important Stories Care Wonderful Who Cares

Author:Orson Scott Card

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