“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.” FeelsShouldTwoCharacterStoriesMovingMy OwnNovelCuttingCrazyInformationEmotionalHugeAmountSceneIncludingDetailsAttachmentFadesChaptersManuscriptsLess Is MoreSmall Details Author:Sarah Waters
“... into the novel goes such taste as I have for rational behaviour and social portraiture. The short story, as I see it to be, allows for what is crazy about humanity: obstinacies, inordinate heroisms, "immortal longings.” StoriesHumanitySocialFictionNovelCrazyTasteLongingRationalImmortalShort StoryHeroismBehaviourObstinacyPortraiture Book:Stories Source: Stories
“We become comfortable saying that there's nothing new, and then something like Malarky comes along, which is new and old and different and familiar, but ultimately itself, comfortable in its own skin, wise and smart and crazy-sexy or maybe sexy-crazy-well, you just have to read it to understand. It's a novel that sets its own course, sure and steady, even when it seems like it might be about to go over the edge of the world.” WorldWellsDifferentSeemsMightCoursesNovelWiseCrazyComfortableSmartSkinsEdgesSexyFamiliarSteadyNothing NewOver The EdgeEdge Of The World Author:Laura Lippman
“I'd never imagined myself writing at all until I was almost 30. And horror films weren't to my taste, at least the super popular (slasher-y) ones of the day back then. The first novel I ever loved as a kid was Frankenstein, and I was always a crazy Hitchcock and Polanski fan... but I never saw myself - a square spazzy girl from the suburbs - writing anything that would horrify anyone. Or so I thought.” WritingFirstsKidsFilmGirlNovelSawsCrazyFansTasteHorrorSquaresSuburbsHorror FilmHitchcock Author:Karen Walton
“With novels, you're sitting at a desk, alone, going slightly crazy, for anywhere from six months to a year with zero feedback.” YearsNovelCrazyMonthsSixSittingZeroDesksSix MonthsFeedback Author:Duane Swierczynski
“Nothing is wrong with you. You're not different. Everybody feels as bad as you do: this is just what writing a novel feels like. To write a novel is to come in contact with raw, primal feelings, hopes and longings and psychic wounds, and try to make a big public word-sculpture out of them, and that is a crazy hard thing to do.” FeelsWritingTryingDifferentHardFeelingsBigsNovelCrazyLongingWoundsContactThings To DoPsychicsSculpturePrimalHard Things Author:Lev Grossman
“The hardest thing in a novel is time. You've got [a line like] "two weeks later, he woke up with a headache," and you've got to add up that entire two weeks and what the date is and whether it works. That kind of stuff drives me crazy and if I don't have it exactly right, I can't move forward because I don't feel confident.” IfsFeelsKindI CanTwoMovingStuffLinesNovelWeekCrazyAddHardestMoving ForwardHardest ThingTwo WeeksHeadacheDrive Me Crazy Author:T.C. Boyle