“Most of the complexity of the stories has developed as the stories came along (and may be a product of the principle that "nothing is what it seems"). I did start with some essential ambiguousness in the aliens' motivation and the questions this raises in human minds, which I consider to have been disregarded in Contact (novel and film). That, in part, may be what has delayed the writing of the fifth and sixth novelettes in the series.” WritingMindHumansMayHas BeensStoriesSeemsFilmMotivationPrinciplesNovelProductsEssentialsRaisesSeriesContactAliensComplexityHuman MindFifthAmbiguityDelayedDisregarded Author:James Gunn
“You know, not every good book needs to be a movie, or a television series, or a video game. There's great work in those mediums, of course, but sometimes a book should remain a book. I still believe nothing tells a story with the richness and complexity of a good novel. When people say they think a book would make a good movie, they say this sometimes because, if it worked, they already saw all the images in the movie theatre that is in their brains. And sometimes that is the way it should stay.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWayNeedsShouldBelieveStillsBookSometimesStoriesCoursesGamesBrainNovelSawsTelevisionSeriesVery GoodTheatreVideoMediumsComplexityGreat WorkGood BookRichnessGood MovieI Still BelieveMovie Theatre Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“A good biography is the richest experience. When you watch a TV series together with someone is like being in a novel with them.” TogetherWatchesNovelTvsSeriesBiographiesTv Series Author:Darcey Steinke
“I think authors are just realizing there's no real reason to feel limited to a narrow set of genre rules in their writing. There's no reason a mystery novel can't have fantastic elements in it. Similarly, there's no reason why your epic fantasy series can't have elements of a mystery.” ThinkingFeelsWritingRealReasonRealizingFantasyNovelMysteryElementsSeriesFantasticGenreReason WhyNo ReasonEpicMystery Novels Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“I started to write a series of fantasy novels when I was eleven. I have never taken anything artistic as seriously; since then, writing has felt like an attempt to get back there, to my bedroom, my maps, those races and languages and runes.” WritingLanguageFeltRaceFantasyNovelTakenSeriesArtisticMapsGet BackBedroomElevenRunesFantasy Novels Author:Ken Baumann
“I like the idea of standalone novels. I always found with series of books, it's something that publishers love obviously because they can make a lot of money and they build an audience from book to book, but I don't like that as a writer. I prefer the idea of just telling a story, completing it within your book, and moving on and not forcing a child to read eight of them.” ChildrenBookIdeasStoriesMovingFoundNovelAudienceSeriesEightLots Of MoneyPublishersCompleting Author:John Boyne
“Jeremy Popkin's collection of first-person narratives of the Haitian Revolution is an extremely valuable work, accessible, sound and intelligent. I only wish such a book had been available fifteen years ago when I was in the early stages of researching my series of novels. Popkin has been deft and tactful in stitching together these excerpts, and as a result, he manages to tell a complete version of the Revolution almost entirely in the words of the people who experienced it-this book engaged me deeply.” PeopleYearsFirstsPersonsHas BeensBookTogetherWishSoundResultsNovelStageRevolutionYears AgoIntelligentSeriesAvailableValuableVersionsManageNarrativeEngagedCollectionsFifteenFirst PersonFifteen YearsHaitianHaitian Revolution Author:Madison Smartt Bell
“Shantaram is the second in the series of a quartet of novels that I have planned about my life but is the first to be written. The third book is a sequel to Shantaram, the first a prequel.” FirstsBookNovelWrittenThirdsSeriesShantaramSequelsQuartets Author:Gregory David Roberts
“I've just finished a series of Olivia Manning novels. She's best known for two trilogies: Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy. The six novels are continuous and contain the same set of characters. They are based on Manning's experiences in Eastern Europe and Egypt during the Second World War. Each novel is a wonderful picture of the peculiar British expatriate culture and what was happening during the war. She's one of those brilliant women who write very well about domestic relationships. All the books are slim, and it's easy to gallop through them.” WorldWritingWellsTwoBookWarCharacterCultureEasyKnownNovelWonderfulSixHappeningsEuropeSeriesBritishFinishedBrilliantWar Of The WorldsPeculiarEgyptEasternSecond World WarSlimEastern EuropeTrilogiesBalkansOliviaExpatriates Author:Sarah Waters
“I won't read a new graphic comic novel until the writer has completed the entire series. I got burned a few times when I got turned on to a book, plowed through it only to find out the author was in the middle of writing the next.” WritingBookNextNovelMiddleSeriesComicBurnedGraphic Author:Nick Offerman
“Novel writing is the slowest art form in the world. It is not a sprint. It is not even a marathon. It is a series of marathons that stretch over and over across a continent.” WorldWritingArtFormNovelSeriesContinentsMarathonNovel WritingSprint Author:Mohsin Hamid
“I've published over 100 books - and that is divided about 50/50 adult and young adult. Lately, I have been writing more YA, which is such a great genre to write it. I don't have a favourite (I usually say it's the last book I've written), but certain books do stick in the mind. My very first YA novel, The Children of Lir, will always be special to me, and, of course The Alchemyst because it was a series I'd wanted to write for ages.” WritingMindFirstsChildrenHas BeensBookAgeWantedLastsYoungCertainCoursesNovelWrittenSpecialAdultsSticksSeriesYoung AdultGenreDividedFavouriteSpecial To Me Author:Michael Scott
“I don't write the same book over and over - I think if I did that, I would stop writing. I couldn't write a series with the same character, and I couldn't write a romance novel over and over again that takes place at a different beach every year. That's not who I am.” IfsThinkingWritingYearsBookDifferentCharacterRomanceNovelSeriesWho I AmBeachRomance Novel Author:Jodi Picoult
“Like most writers, I look back on all of my finished works with utter regret, and the trouble with writing a series of novels is that you have to go back and read them, and make sure that you haven't forgotten anything you've created, and then when you do that, you're faced with your own mistakes on every trick, from the wrong word in places to entirely the wrong incident.” WritingLooksMistakeNovelTroubleHavensRegretSeriesForgottenFinishedTricksIncidentsFinished WorkWrong Words Author:Daniel Handler
“Writing a film - more precisely, adapting a book into a film - is basically a relentless series of compromises. The skill, the "art," is to make those compromises both artistically valid and essentially your own. . . . It has been said before but is worth reiterating: writing a novel is like swimming in the sea; writing a film is like swimming in the bath.” WritingHas BeensArtSaidBookFilmNovelSeaSkillsArt IsSeriesCompromiseCraftsSwimmingBathsRelentlessAdapting Author:William Boyd
“It [going from mini-series to series] was never even discussed because it [The Starter Wife] was, you know, an adaptation of a novel. And we - the mini-series encompassed the whole novel. And so it was always going to be a finite sort of event. And then I imagine when people started to really respond to the show and then we got ten Emmy nominations, USA sort of said, "Oh, I think maybe we have something here."” PeopleThinkingKnowsSaidWholeShowsNovelImagineEventsTenSeriesUsaFiniteAdaptationNominationsEmmys Author:Debra Messing
“Film is so much about that intensity of focus that there always needs to be some tension and some forward motion. The novel goes into a series of lovely observations about the world, but you've got to find the story.” WorldNeedsStoriesFilmNovelFocusSeriesLovelyObservationTensionIntensityForward Motion Author:Lenny Abrahamson
“One of the great things about writing a series is that with each book, the novel is meant to stand alone on its own legs, but also to bring along those loyal readers who become attached to the characters over the years.” WritingYearsBookCharacterNovelReaderSeriesLegsGreat ThingsLoyalStand Alone Author:Linda Fairstein
“I have lived for a long time inside a series of coincidences that most people would find implausible in a novel.” PeopleLongNovelLong TimeSeriesCoincidence Author:Alexander Chee
“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
“There is interest in a crime-based reality show. With my novels, we are now editing the second book in a series about a defense lawyer whose name is Samantha Brinkman. And I am reviewing speaking engagement opportunities.” BookShowsRealityOpportunityNamesInterestNovelCrimeSeriesDefenseLawyerEngagementEditingReality ShowsSamantha Author:Marcia Clark
“I had no idea Savage Season was the beginning of a series. I wrote the second one about three years later. The character of Hap wouldn't stop talking to me, and then there was a third, and over the years nine novels and a collection of stories and some uncollected stories.” YearsIdeasCharacterStoriesThreeTalkingNovelThirdsSeasonsSeriesNineNo IdeaCollectionsThree YearsSavages Author:Joe R. Lansdale
“Different influences at different times in my career, and some have stayed with me more, some less. Chester Himes. Ralph Dennis, who wrote a series called Hardman which is a big influence on the Hap and Leonard novels. Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, Gerald Kersh, Fredrick Brown, Robert Bloch, and I'm just getting started. I read constantly. As for the epic Western, that's Paradise Sky.” DifferentBigsCareersNovelSkyInfluenceSeriesWesternParadiseBrownFarmersEpicDifferent TimesPhilipGetting Started Author:Joe R. Lansdale
“I suppose drama can either take the place of a novel or can be very closely allied with it. It's quite customary to turn a successful novel into a film or a television series because you can dramatize and pictorialize a novel.” FilmTurnsNovelSuccessfulTelevisionDramaSeries Author:William Golding