“Read like mad. But try to do it analytically - which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It's worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work.” WritingTryingHardMightNovelFiguresConsciousMadDevicesCompelling Author:Sarah Waters
“There are people already sharing eBooks out there, .. and they do it simply because they love books. You don't buy a second copy of a book, cut the spine off, lay each page on a scanner, run that .tif through an OCR (Optical Character Reader), hand edit the resulting output for errors and then post it online if you don't love the book. it can up to 80 hours to turn a printed novel into an eBook. I figure if someone out there is willing to put in 80 hours of work promoting my book, then I'd prefer they do it in a way that gives a better return to me.” PeopleIfsWayGivingBookCharacterHandsRunningTurnsHoursNovelCuttingFiguresWillingReturnReaderPagesLaysErrorsPostsOnlineCopiesPromotingPrintedEditsSpineOutputReturn To Me Author:Cory Doctorow
“As to the number of novels I've abandoned... I shudder to think. I have thrown away five completed novels, and that's a gruesome enough figure. But not necessarily a waste of effort.” ThinkingEnoughNumbersEffortNovelFiveFiguresWasteThrownAbandonedWaste Of Effort Author:Mark Haddon
“Always in the short story there is this sense of outlawed figures wandering about the fringes of society.... As a result there is in the short story at its most characteristic something we do not often find in the novel--an intense awareness of human loneliness.” HumansStoriesResultsNovelAwarenessLonelinessFiguresIntenseWanderCharacteristicsShort StoryFringe Author:Frank O'Connor
“Writing, and especially writing a novel, where you get to sit in a room by yourself with either a pen and a paper or a computer for a couple of years, is a very solitary occupation. You can read sales figures - a hundred thousand books sold, half a million books sold - but they are just numbers.” WritingYearsBookRoomsNumbersHalfMillionsNovelFiguresCoupleThousandPaperComputerHundredPensOccupationSolitary Author:Neil Gaiman
“Before I studied story, I was trying to write a novel, and it was terrible. It wasn't going anywhere, and I couldn't figure out what I was trying to do. It was really hard; much harder than I thought it was going to be. Now that I've studied story, I think I'd have a different approach and maybe I could actually get it done.” ThinkingWritingTryingDifferentHardDoneStoriesNovelFiguresTerribleApproachHarderGet It DoneDifferent Approach Author:Donald Miller
“Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.” IfsWritingTryingReadingFictionNovelWrittenStyleFiguresSpeechRecognitionProseCrapWriting FictionSpoken Word Author:Charles Stross
“I am really interested in who owns ideas of religion. What if I say I'm a libertarian, socialist, Occupy-supporting, anti-war, Christian? Is that a controversial idea? I don't see anything really in the original semiotics of Christianity, in the specific parable of the radical socialist Jew from Galilee who becomes the hero figure in the Homeric-word-of-mouth-gossip-novel that becomes the Bible that should make that a paradox.” IfsShouldIdeasWarChristianChristianityNovelFiguresHeroMouthsOriginalsJewLibertarianRadicalWhat IfParadoxGossipAnti WarSocialistControversialParablesWord Of MouthSemiotics Author:Robert Montgomery
“Certainly some guy eating cardboard in Cincinnati has lost any ordinary impetus to review your novel decently if he's just read you just got six figures out of Warner Bros - which incidentally was not true.” IfsGuyLostNovelFiguresSixEatingOrdinaryReviewsImpetusBrosWarner Bros Author:William Monahan
“I really want to write a novel. A few years ago I went so far as to do the cliché thing and rent this house in upstate [New York]. I still have the story, but I got 15,000, 20,000 words in and it was like, This is falling apart. I can't figure out.” WantWritingYearsStillsI CanStoriesFallHouseNovelFiguresNew YorkYears AgoFalling ApartUpstate New York Author:Craig Finn
“California seemed to me to be all about secrets and the need for safety. And this leads to this thematic messiness I'm still trying to figure out what to do with. I mean, when it comes to the themes, this is nothing like an Atwood novel.” NeedsTryingMeanStillsSecretNovelFiguresSafetyCaliforniaThemeThematicMessiness Author:Edan Lepucki
“Now, as a reader, you shouldn't feel the decisions the writer makes about this DNA, or it would be boring beyond belief. But, as a writer, you're struggling to make these decisions. What should the title be? What's the first line? The point of view? And the struggle with the decisions is because you're trying to figure out WHAT IS THE NOVEL, WHAT IS THE NOVEL?” FeelsShouldTryingFirstsWould BeBeliefLinesDecisionViewsNovelStruggleFiguresReaderBoringPoint Of ViewTitlesDna Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“Our need to identify with representative figures is something that never goes away. We still find those in novels. We find those in television. We find them in movies. We find them all over the place.” NeedsStillsNovelFiguresTelevisionRepresentatives Author:Matthew Specktor