Best novel & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 11

“I'm trying to break myself of that habit [of not writing out a first draft ] because I'm working on a couple novels and I know if I tried to write those books the way I wrote the stories it would take me years to finish.”

Ifs Knows Way Writing Trying Years Firsts Book Stories Break Novel Couple Habit Take Me

Author:Donald Ray Pollock

“For me, the historical and genealogical library is the one I use. I'm working on, I'll say, it's a time travel novel. I haven't written very much of it. That's the dirty secret of the Cullman center: The writers don't write their fiction there, they just do their research.”

Writing Use Secret Fiction Novel Written Havens Research Historical Library Dirty Time Travel Dirty Secrets

Author:Andrew Sean Greer

“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.”

People Writing Novel Mystery Pages Program Code Thick Manuals Processing Macintosh Morse Code

Author:Steve Jobs

“When you get ready to write your novel, outline it first. There's nothing worse than getting halfway through and realizing you've painted yourself in a plot corner.”

Writing Firsts Realizing Novel Ready Corners Plot Halfway Outlines

Author:Janet Evanovich

“I always wanted to write. While I was on a long surf trip, supporting myself with various day jobs, I was working hard on a novel. My third novel, in fact.”

Writing Long Hard Facts Wanted Jobs Novel Thirds Various Surf Day Jobs

Author:William Finnegan

“Initially I only decided to try and write a novel because I wasn't getting enough screenwriting work. It wasn't a long-held ambition, and certainly the idea came first.”

Writing Trying Firsts Long Ideas Enough Novel Ambition Decided Working It Screenwriting

Book:The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel

Source: The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel

“It is simply much easier to infuse life, feeling, and higher truth into a novel than a non-fiction work, to find the license to write truth without being wedded to fact.”

Writing Facts Feelings Fiction Novel Higher Easier License Non Fiction

Author:Jon Weisman

“When I write a book I'm always questioning the project as a whole. I always feel I might have to just throw it away and forget about it, and I've done that with novels I've started and worked on for a long time. It's an option I need in order to write freely.”

Needs Feels Writing Long Book Done Whole Might Order Forget Novel Projects Long Time Questioning

Author:Daniel Kehlmann

“Writing is a particular kind of frustration, which is why when I was making the structure for the novel I visualized it for myself with a color-coded board so I could see it.”

Writing Kind Novel Particular Color Structure Boards Frustration

Author:Rebecca Miller

“Novel-writing is a settling, lovely space. I call it self-indulgent - I feel mildly guilty about it.”

Feels Writing Self Space Novel Lovely Guilty Settling Novel Writing Self Indulgent

Author:Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

“Anthropologists are great at novelistic observations. I would be thrilled if this novel would encourage anthropologists to write what they see in fictional form.”

Ifs Writing Would Be Form Novel Observation Anthropologists

Author:Lily King

“Anthropological fieldwork is so much like writing a novel. You don't know what the hell is going on.”

Knows Writing Novel Hell Fieldwork

Author:Lily King

“I think the trick of writing a good picture book manuscript is to leave that space for illustration. An illustrated novel can do the same thing.”

Thinking Writing Book Can Do Space Novel Tricks Manuscripts Illustration Picture Books

Author:Mac Barnett

“I had to detach myself from myself, if that makes any sense, to conjure an authentic first-person voice. In that sense, it was similar to writing a first-person novel. But I was writing about real people, not fictional ones - myself, my family, my friends and boyfriends and ex-husband, and that was extremely tricky.”

People Ifs Writing Firsts Persons Real Voice Novel Husband My Friends My Family Exes Tricky First Person Ex Husband

Author:Kate Christensen

“I love to read and teach experimental fiction but yes, neither this work nor my first novel is really that experimental. It uses some experimental techniques but in the end, I would not say that it is experimental. I'm not sure why. I do a lot of writing on my own, and I have always just written this way.”

Way Writing Firsts Ends Use My Own Fiction Teach Novel Written Technique Not Sure Love To Read

Author:Porochista Khakpour

“Each piece of writing I undertake, whether a story, novel, play, or poem, begins with an image.”

Writing Play Stories Novel Pieces

Author:Norman Lock

“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.”

Want Writing Years Stills I Can Stories Fall House Novel Figures New York Years Ago Falling Apart Upstate New York

Author:Craig Finn

“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.”

Thinking Writing Years Long I Can Form Fun Lines Half Break Novel Advice Bears Habit Pages Prose Length Pace Excess Proceeding Best Advice All The Best Rewriting Snail Tinkering

Author:Debra Dean

“Once I had started, I discovered the secret pleasure of writing a novel. It's such an immersive, deep commitment. With short stories, you're continually having to start again from scratch, but with a novel you only need one good idea every few years.”

Needs Writing Years Ideas Stories Pleasure Secret Novel Commitment Short Story Good Ideas Scratches

Author:Debra Dean

“If you had told me twenty years ago that I would write a novel set in Russia, much less two, I simply wouldn't have believed you. I had no familiarity with Russia or its history, but part of what drives me as a reader, and more and more as a writer, is curiosity, the desire to explore unfamiliar terrain and inhabit alternate lives.”

Ifs Writing Years Two Desire Novel Reader Years Ago Twenties Curiosity Russia Familiarity Unfamiliar Terrain

Author:Debra Dean

“I am not sure I knew what I was doing, writing an "apocalypse" novel, when I started this book. Now that the book is done, I can own that I have in fact written an apocalypse novel, one that speculates on a dark, dark future. Why I did it, I really don't know - every time people read my work they comment on its darkness, its sadness.”

People Knows Writing I Can Book Done Facts Dark Darkness Novel Written Sadness Not Sure Comment Apocalypse

Author:Edan Lepucki

“have a much harder time writing stories than novels. I need the expansiveness of a novel and the propulsive energy it provides. When I think about scene - and when I teach scene writing - I'm thinking about questions. What questions are raised by a scene? What questions are answered? What questions persist from scene to scene to scene?”

Thinking Needs Writing Stories Energy Teach Novel Scene Harder Raised Persist Writing Stories Expansiveness

Author:Edan Lepucki

“It's an unusual way to write a crime novel, to have these lingering, fairly large story points, but it's something I knew I had to do if I wanted to write a sequel...but, you know, people still have to read and enjoy this book, or it's a moot point.”

People Ifs Knows Way Writing Stills Book Stories Wanted Enjoy Novel Crime Unusual Sequels Lingering Crime Novels

Author:Tod Goldberg

“Maybe someone's who's a different kind of writer [would think otherwise] - someone who'd be just as comfortable writing essays on what their novels are about. Sometimes you feel like certain novelists are like that.”

Thinking Feels Writing Kind Different Sometimes Certain Novel Comfortable Novelists Different Kinds Essays Writing Essays

Author:Chang-Rae Lee

“Good writing, in my opinion, is writing that looks really easy, so easy that a person who has never written more than a grocery list might convince themself that they could also write a book. That being said, it's always a lot of work, as you know. And then there's this: you have no idea how many failed stories and novels I've attempted. I have files full of stories that didn't work for whatever reason.”

Knows Writing Looks Persons Said Book Ideas Reason Stories Might Easy Opinion Novel Written Lists No Idea Convince Now And Then Files Groceries Good Writing Grocery Lists

Author:Mary J. Miller

“I don't revise a lot when writing short stories. As far as the novel, I definitely thought more about plot. Honestly, I'm still pretty confused about what "plot" means. I've been reading some of my Goodreads reviews and one reader noted that the The Last Days of California "reads like a short story stretched to the breaking point, padded and brought into novel range..." I don't know what people want, really.”

“The DNA of the novel - which, if I begin to write nonfiction, I will write about this - is that: the title of the novel is the whole novel. The first line of the novel is the whole novel. The point of view is the whole novel. Every subplot is the whole novel. The verb tense is the whole novel.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Whole Lines Views Novel Point Of View Titles Nonfiction Dna Tense Verbs Subplots

Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff

“I can be really silly when I'm not actually writing silliness, and I have to rein that in. Pynchon, in my opinion, sometimes tells elaborate shaggy dog stories just to work up to a pun or punch line. My challenge is to use humor and wordplay to reinforce the emotional core of the novel.”

Writing I Can Sometimes Stories Use Challenges Lines Opinion Novel Dog Emotional Core Silly Reins Pun Wordplay Silliness

Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff

“The idea of the writer who writes nineteen novels, with various ups and downs and levels of experimentation, isn't around so much now. There's a focus, I think, on fewer books, with more pressure on each book to succeed. With that there comes, I think, a certain pressure towards shapeliness in fiction. Towards neatness. And I think writers feel that, and it can effect how they write.”

Thinking Feels Writing Book Ideas Certain Levels Fiction Novel Focus Effects Succeed Pressure Various Fewer Ups & Downs Experimentation Nineteen Neatness

Author:Chad Harbach

“I don't think about the reader in any conscious way that impacts the writing, as far as, Hey, most readers would like this! But at the same time, if it were presented to me: "John, you're going to write a novel. It's going to take you a few years. When you're done with it, there's a law that no one's allowed to read it." I don't think I would write it. I want someone to read it!”

Ifs Thinking Way Want Writing Years Done Law Novel Reader Conscious Impact Hey

Author:John Brandon

“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?”

Writing Has Beens War Character Stories Able Turns Situation Novel Benefits Pages Remains Decades Versions Collections Comment New Situations

Author:Said Sayrafiezadeh

“We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.”

Thinking Want Writing Believe Persons Ideas Self Hard Lying Belief Novel Century Awareness Serious Self Awareness Stuck Narrative Falsehood 21st Century Thinking Person

Author:Michael Helm

“For a really long time [before writing the novel], I was watching a lot of serial killer movies and I started to wonder if this was a trend and if other people were doing the same thing. That's what happens when you suddenly have a critical perspective on your own behavior.”

People Ifs Writing Long Happens Wonder Novel Perspective Behavior Long Time Critical Trends Killers Serials Serial Killer Really Long

Author:Lucy Corin

“You know how some people will say to writers, "Why don't you just write a romance novel that sells a bunch of copies and then you'll have the money to do the kind of writing you want to do"? I always say that I don't have the skills or knowledge to do that. It would be just as hard for me to do that kind of writing as it would be to learn how to do any number of productive careers that I can't manage to make myself do.”

People Knows Want Writing Kind I Can Hard Would Be Romance Numbers Careers Novel Know How Skills Sells Bunch Manage Productive Copies Romance Novel

Author:Lucy Corin

“Even though novels were the love of my life, I started off writing poetry. I think because I had a knack for image and lyricism, even though I didn't really have anything to write about, or I didn't know what to write about. I could just couple words together that pleased me and so poetry seemed sort of natural.”

Thinking Knows Writing Together Natural Novel Couple Knack Writing Poetry Love Of My Life

Author:Melissa Febos

“When I was in college I started writing prose, because a very smart professor asked me what I like to read and I said, "Novels," and she said, "You should be writing them then." Memoir never even occurred to me. I think I was afraid of nonfiction and I was afraid of navel-gazing, and of being seen.”

Thinking Should Writing Said Novel College Smart Memoir Prose Professors Nonfiction Gazing Very Smart Navel Navel Gazing

Author:Melissa Febos

“I saved letters from my boss. There are things in there that are directly transcribed. I was so glad I did that. Sometimes when I was writing the book I wondered if some little writer hobbit part of my brain was back there puppeteering that action. But it really never, on any conscious level, occurred to me that I would write about it. I will say, I thought probably some day there would be an ancillary character in some novel - not in the one I was currently writing - that would be a dominatrix or something.”

Ifs Writing Littles Book Sometimes Character Would Be Action Levels Brain Novel Conscious Letters Saved Glad Boss

Author:Melissa Febos

“I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.”

People Writing Firsts Ends Stories Novel Emotional Research Historical Core Historical Novels

Author:Jami Attenberg

“Thomas Mann used to write education novels and now you can write an education memoir, and there are all these memoirs coming out now about people's relationships with books. Like anything else, these can be good or bad. The genre doesn't make it good or bad, it's the execution.”

People Writing Book Used Novel Be Good Memoir Genre Coming Out Execution

Author:Marco Roth

“Even while I was working on the novel I would also write short stories as relief, just to be in a wieldier world that could negotiated more easily and more quickly. In the novel, I even changed the narrator from a man to a woman.”

Men World Writing Stories Novel Changed Relief Short Story Narrators

Author:Leni Zumas

“In undergraduate classes, I often see writers who are still simply imitating. I mean, we all imitate - that's how we learn to speak or write in the first place - but they're writing a Dean Koontz novel or something.”

Writing Firsts Mean Stills Speak Class Novel Dean Imitating Undergraduate

Author:Leni Zumas

“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.”

Want Writing Wells Born Novel Written Pages Eras Narrative Collections Plot Inches Essays Sonnet Screenplays

Author:Julianna Baggott

“The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again - without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.”

Writing Might Beautiful Half Novel Pieces Cutting Taught Lessons Losing Essence Journalism Prose Swollen Lesson Learned Npr

Author:Julianna Baggott

“You want the greatest trick for writing a novel? Here it is: imagine urgently whispering your story into one person's ear - and only one. This one visualization will clarify every word choice you make.”

Want Writing Persons Stories Choices Novel Imagine Ears Tricks Whispering Visualization Choices You Make Word Choice

Author:Julianna Baggott

“My first book published in France was translated and titled Exercices d'Attente in 1972. It was a collection of short works written and published in Romania. In 1973 I was ready to publish the novel Arpièges, which I had started writing in Romanian and of which I had published some fragments under the title Vain Art of the Fugue. Some years later, I finished Necessary Marriage.”

Writing Years Firsts Art Book Novel Written Ready Finished France Vain Titles Collections Fragments Publish Romania Fugue

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“Historical novels are about costumery. I think that's the magic and mystery of fiction. I don't want to write historical fiction but I do want the story to have the feel of history. There's a difference.”

Thinking Want Feels Writing Stories Differences Fiction Novel Magic Mystery Historical Historical Fiction Historical Novels

Author:Chang-Rae Lee

“Writing the novel felt so private to me! I think publishing a novel is quite public and exposing, and what's a little frightening to me right now is the fact that it feels so entirely opposed to the privacy that is writing.”

Thinking Feels Writing Littles Facts Felt Novel Right Now Privacy Frightening Publishing Exposing

Author:Garth Greenwell

“That's how I work, whether with stories or novels - they start with an image that comes to me in a daydream, and a lot of times I'm walking around with these pictures in my head for awhile before I start writing.”

Writing Stories Novel Walking Daydreaming

Author:Dan Chaon

“I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down - it feels fatalistic in some way.”

Way Feels Writing Stories Worry Novel Knowing Too Much Knowing Too Much

Author:Dan Chaon

“For me, the process of writing a novel happens mostly in your head before you actually start writing.”

Writing Happens Process Novel

Author:Dan Chaon

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