“The manual for WordStar, the most popular word-processing program, is 400 pages thick. To write a novel, you have to read a novel - one that reads like a mystery to most people. They're not going to learn slash q-z any more than they're going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about.” PeopleWritingNovelMysteryPagesProgramCodeThickManualsProcessingMacintoshMorse Code Author:Steve Jobs
“I think I was also afraid of the novel. I write line by line, proceeding at snail's pace, rewriting as I go and paring the excess away. This is against all the best advice for writing long form prose, and I have tried over the years to break myself of the habit, but I can't bear to leave anything ungainly on the page and half the fun for me is that tinkering. So the length of a novel was a daunting prospect.” ThinkingWritingYearsLongI CanFormFunLinesHalfBreakNovelAdviceBearsHabitPagesProseLengthPaceExcessProceedingBest AdviceAll The BestRewritingSnailTinkering Author:Debra Dean
“The benefit of writing a collection - as opposed to a novel - is that I'm able to have some version of the war in each story without having to comment on its all-encompassing nature. Turn the page and here are new characters and new situations, but the war remains... Isn't that how life has been for us for over a decade?” WritingHas BeensWarCharacterStoriesAbleTurnsSituationNovelBenefitsPagesRemainsDecadesVersionsCollectionsCommentNew Situations Author:Said Sayrafiezadeh
“I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.” WantWritingWellsBornNovelWrittenPagesErasNarrativeCollectionsPlotInchesEssaysSonnetScreenplays Author:Julianna Baggott
“One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.” ThinkingWorldFirstsImportantCharacterStoriesEasyMistakeNovelEasierPagesHundredShort Story Author:Yiyun Li
“In my head, the 5 issues of A Spoon Too Short comprise one novel: a 100 page graphic novel sequel to Douglas' two Dirk books, taking some of the ideas he was working on before he died, and a whole bunch of new stuff from me and a little from Max Landis (who is the Executive Producer on the book as well as writing the forthcoming TV series).” WritingWellsLittlesTwoBookIdeasWholeStuffNovelIssuesTvsPagesDiedSeriesBunchProducersExecutivesToo ShortGraphicMaxSpoonsSequelsTv SeriesGraphic NovelsNew StuffForthcomingLandi Author:Arvind Ethan David
“My boyfriend suggested I write two pages a day. He wouldn't take me out if I hadn't done my two pages. That's how I wrote my second novel.” IfsWritingTwoDoneNovelPagesTake MeMy Boyfriend Author:S. E. Hinton
“I really like the "two is better than three" line. People ask me is this drama or comedy? I just think the more colors you have to a film the better. The more genres, the more people will like it. I like relating to the whole general speaking public. The script itself is 99 pages but the novel it is based on is 600. I had to leave a lot of stuff out of the script. I had a limitation of what I could present on the big screen.” PeopleThinkingTwoWholeBigsFilmThreeAsksStuffLinesNovelComedyColorDramaPagesScriptsScreensLimitationGenreAsk MeBig Screen Author:Tommy Wiseau
“I wanted to write something that was very entertaining to read. The hardest part of this novel [The Yoga of Max's Discontent] was how to make a deeply spiritual transformation journey page-turning and adventurous. That was the hardest part to crack for me.” WritingWantedSpiritualNovelJourneyPagesYogaTransformationHardestCracksEntertainingAdventurousDiscontentMaxSpiritual TransformationPages Turning Author:Karan Bajaj
“When I was fifteen I wrote seven hundred pages of an incredibly bad novel - it's a very funny book I still like a lot. Then, when I was nineteen I wrote a couple hundred pages of another novel, which wasn't very good either. I was still determined to be a writer. And since I was a writer, and here I was twenty-nine years old and I wasn't a very good poet and I wasn't a very good novelist, I thought I would try writing a play, which seems to have worked out a little better.” WritingTryingYearsLittlesStillsBookPlaySeemsNovelPoetCouplePagesHundredTwentiesSevenVery GoodDeterminedNineNovelistsFifteenNine YearsNineteenFunny Book Book:Conversations with Edward Albee Source: Conversations with Edward Albee
“I wanted to be a writer, but the idea of writing novels or movies seemed really intimidating. I never got more than a few pages into one.” WritingIdeasWantedNovelPagesIntimidating Author:Kurt Busiek
“There is an energy, a romance in writing the first novel that can never be duplicated again. I was entirely absorbed in that world as I wrote the book [The Kite Runner] and to see the final page of that manuscript whir out of the printer was a very special feeling indeed.” WorldWritingFirstsBookFeelingsRomanceEnergyNovelSpecialPagesFinalsRunnersManuscriptsKitesPrinter Author:Khaled Hosseini