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Novel Quotes

“Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts - including my own - where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: “This is where the novel should actually start.” A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it.”

Feels Should Two Character Stories Moving My Own Novel Cutting Crazy Information Emotional Huge Amount Scene Including Details Attachment Fades Chapters Manuscripts Less Is More Small Details

Author:Sarah Waters

“From the moment I start a new novel, life's just one endless torture. The first few chapters may go fairly well and I may feel there's still a chance to prove my worth, but that feeling soon disappears and every day I feel less and less satisfied.”

Feels Firsts Wells May Stills Moments Feelings Chance Novel Prove Disappear Endless Satisfied Torture Just One Chapters Dissatisfaction

Author:Emile Zola

“I don't see how anybody starts a novel without knowing how it's going to end. I usually make detailed outlines: how many chapters it will be and so forth.”

Ends Novel Knowing Chapters Outlines

Author:John Barth

“I've come to realize that however blue my circumstances, if after finishing a chapter of a Dickens novel I feel a miss-my-stop-on-the-train sort of compulsion to read on, then everything is probably going to be just fine.”

Ifs Feels Realizing Novel Missing Fine Circumstances Blue Train Chapters Compulsion Finishing Dickens

Book:Rules of Civility

Source: Rules of Civility

“If life were a novel, then dead would mark the end of the first chapter.”

Ifs Firsts Ends Novel Mark Chapters

Author:Kelly Nelson

“a novel is not born of a single idea. The stories I've tried to write from one idea, no matter how terrific an idea, have sputtered out and died by chapter three. For me, novels have invariably come from a complex of ideas that in the beginning seemed to bear no relation to each other, but in the unconscious began mysteriously to merge and grow. Ideas for a novel are like the strong guy lines of a spider web. Without them the silken web cannot be spun.”

Writing Ideas Matter Stories Guy Three Strong Grows Born Lines Novel Bears Relation Died Complexes Unconscious Chapters Spiders Terrific Spun Spider Web

Author:Katherine Paterson

“When I published my first novel, Slammed, I included lyrics at the beginning of each chapter from one of my favorite bands, The Avett Brothers. The overwhelmingly positive response from readers to those lyrics really surprised me.”

Firsts Novel Brother Reader Band Response My Favorite Chapters Favorite Bands Positive Response

Author:Colleen Hoover

“I think being an editor really helped me take other people's notes on my writing. I'd get a note like 'It's too wet' or 'The first couple chapters are good, but then the rest of the pages were so wet that they were completely illegible' or 'Did you dip this in Sprite? This smells like Sprite. Why would you dip your novel in Sprite?' And instead of pushing back, I'd listen. That's an incredibly important skill for a young writer to have.”

People Thinking Writing Firsts Important Young Novel Couple Skills Pages Notes Smell Pushing Editors Wet Chapters Dip Young Writers Pushing Back

Author:Toni Morrison

“I do not begin my novel at the beginning, I do not reach chapter three before I reach chapter four, I do not go dutifully from one page to the next, in consecutive order; no, I pick out a bit here and a bit there, till I have filled all the gaps on paper. This is why I like writing my stories and novels on index cards, numbering them later when the whole set is complete. Every card is rewritten many times.”

Writing Whole Stories Order Three Next Bits Novel Four Paper Pages Picks Filled Cards Gaps Chapters Consecutive

Author:Vladimir Nabokov

“The process for writing a picture book is completely different from the process of writing a chapter book or novel. For one thing, most of my picture books rhyme. Also, when I write a picture book I'm always thinking about the role the pictures will play in the telling of the story. It can take me several months to write a picture book, but it takes me several years to write a novel.”

Thinking Writing Years Book Different Play Stories Process Roles Novel One Thing Months Take Me Chapters Rhyme Always Thinking Picture Books

Author:Sarah Weeks

“With a song, it only takes a couple of minutes to go back to the beginning and try it again to see if it works. The novel freaks me out because, what if you get into the eighth chapter and think, 'Let's go to the top and see if this works again? It's going to take me three weeks.' I'm in awe of that.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Trying Song Three Novel Week Minutes Couple Awe What If Songwriting Take Me Freak Chapters

Author:Ben Folds

“I had a novel in the back of my mind when I won an Ian St James story competition in 1993. At the award ceremony an agent asked me if I was writing a novel. I showed her four or five chapters of what would become 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and to my surprise she auctioned them off.”

Ifs Writing Mind Stories Behinds Novel Five Four Scene Competition Surprise Agents Awards Museums Chapters Ceremony Of My Mind Behind The Scenes Award Ceremonies

Author:Kate Atkinson

“In a novella, a whole lot of crap can happen, and you can build momentum and suspense and leave room for a surprise or three. Stories are cut down to the most essential elements, and novels (this might be an unfair generalization on my part) are big fat clumsy efforts where the reader can snooze for a couple chapters and miss nothing of consequence. Hence my love for the middle way.”

“Writers block: when I get it, it's because my subconscious spotted that I'd make a huge structural mistake in constructing a novel before my conscious mind became aware of it, and threw on the brakes. So I've learned not to sweat it: take two days off, then back up a chapter, read through, and try to work out why I'm suddenly uneasy about continuing.”

Trying Mind Two Mistake Novel Huge Conscious Work Out Block I've Learned Sweat Chapters Continuing Subconscious Two Days Uneasy Writer's Block Days Off Brake Conscious Mind

Author:Charles Stross

“My writing derived from the conviction I conceived during my college years: one should lead one's life as if one were the protagonist of an epic novel, with the outcome predetermined and chapter after chapter of edifying, traumatic, and exhilarating events to be suffered through. Since the end is known in advance, one must try to experience as much as possible in the brief time allotted. Writing is a way of ensuring that you pay enough attention along the way to understand what you see.”

Ifs Way Should Writing Trying Years Ends Enough Pay Attention Known Novel Events College Conviction Outcomes Chapters Epic Exhilarating Protagonists Predetermined Year One College Years

Author:Jeffrey Tayler

“I'm a relatively disciplined writer who composes the whole book before beginning to execute and write it. Of course, you can't hold - you cannot imagine a whole novel before you write it; there are limits to human memory and imagination. Lots of things come to your mind as you write a book, but again, I make a plan, chapter, know the plot.”

Knows Writing Mind Humans Book Whole Courses Imagination Memories Novel Imagine Plans Limits Plot Chapters

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“When a colleague of mine had a notable New York Times book, I said, turn one of the chapters in the collection into a pitch for a novel and sell it to your publisher.”

Said Book Turns Novel New York Mines Sells Collections Chapters Colleagues Publishers Notable New York Times

Author:Julianna Baggott