“I plot as I go. Many novelists write an outline that has almost as many pages as their ultimate book. Others knock out a brief synopsis... Do what is comfortable. If you have to plot out every move your characters make, so be it. Just make sure there is a plausible purpose behind their machinations. A good reader can smell a phony plot a block away.” IfsWritingBookCharacterMovingPurposeBehindsReaderComfortablePagesUltimateSmellBlockNovelistsPlotOutlinesPhonyPlausibleSynopsis Author:Clive Cussler
“I can tell you that as a writer and as a reader, I regard character as king. Or queen. No matter how riveting the action or interesting the plot twists, if I don't feel like I'm meeting someone who feels real, I'm not going to be compelled to read further.” IfsFeelsI CanRealMatterCharacterActionInterestingReaderKingsRegardMeetingsQueensPlotCompelledTwistsMeeting SomeonePlot Twists Author:Maggie Stiefvater
“When the reader and one narrator know something the other narrator does not, the opportunities for suspense and plot development and the shifting of reader sympathies get really interesting.” KnowsDoeOpportunityInterestingDevelopmentReaderSuspensePlotShiftingGet RealReally InterestingNarrators Author:Sara Zarr
“It is a little out of touch to presume that someone wants to follow your every observation and insight over the course of hundreds of pages without any sort of payoff. That's why writing isn't a one-way street. You have to give something back: an interesting plot, a surprise, a laugh, a moment of tenderness, a mystery for the reader to piece together.” WayWantGivingWritingLittlesMomentsTogetherCoursesInterestingLaughingPiecesMysteryStreetsReaderPagesSurpriseInsightObservationOne WayPlotTendernessPayoff Author:Christopher Bollen
“As readers, we want not only a strong story, but also characters we can relate to, characters that feel real. We have to find something of ourselves in them. Each character, even those only there to serve the mechanics of the plot, should have a number of layers. The entire world you are stepping into as a reader must feel real. It must have resonance, you must be able to touch the light; smell the smells.” WorldWantFeelsShouldRealCharacterStoriesLightAbleStrongNumbersReaderShould HaveSmellRelatePlotLayersMechanicResonance Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“Do you solemnly swear never to conceal a vital clue from the reader? Do you promise to observe seemly moderation in the use of gangs, conspiracies, Super Criminals and Lunatics and utterly and forever to forswear Mysterious Poisons unknown to science? Will you honor the King's English? ... If you fail to keep your promise, may other writers steal your plots and your pages swarm with misprints.” IfsMayUseNovelForeverFailingMysteryReaderKingsHonorPromisePagesCriminalsStealingMysteriousPoisonPlotConspiracySwearModerationClueGangSwarmsMystery Novels Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.” WritingBookCharacterStoriesFeelingsStrongDifficultVoiceFictionReaderFindingsResearchTasksSettingSettingsDevelopingPlotNon FictionWriting A BookStrong FeelingDifficult TasksDevising Author:Randy Pausch
“As a reader I like both great characterization and fast moving plots. The challenge is to balance the both and not compromise one for the other.” MovingChallengesReaderBalanceCompromisePlotGreat CharacterCharacterization Author:Tobsha Learner
“I think the further away you get from completing a book, the more responses you see to it from readers, the more your own tastes and opinions shift and the more you start to see things you could have written differently in the detail, or done differently on the broader scale of plot and character.” ThinkingBookDoneCharacterOpinionWrittenReaderTasteResponseDetailsScalesPlotCompleting Author:Joe Abercrombie
“Storytelling is ultimately a creative act of pattern recognition. Through characters, plot and setting, a writer creates places where previously invisible truths become visible. Or the storyteller posits a series of dots that the reader can connect.” CharacterCreativeReaderTruth IsSeriesPatternsInvisibleSettingStorytellingSettingsRecognitionVisiblePlotStorytellerDots Author:Douglas Coupland
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.” ThinkingKindFeelingsFormDivinePoetReaderPlot Author:Franz Grillparzer
“Story is about pulling the reader in and a plot is a more externalized mechanism of revelation. A plot is more antic, more performative, and less intimate. When you're telling a story you're telling it into someone's ear.” StoriesReaderEarsIntimateRevelationsPlotMechanismPullingAntics Author:Anne Enright
“Personally, I avoid deus ex machina like the plague - if you have to use one, it means you failed to set up the universe and the plot properly. It's like a whodunnit where there's no actual way for the reader to identify the perpetrator before the climactic reveal: there's no sense of closure for the reader.” IfsWayMeanUseUniverseReaderPlotExesPlagueClosurePerpetrators Author:Charles Stross
“The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so, and by the manipulation of his plot, he can engage the reader's attention so that he does not perceive the violence that has been done to him.” DoeHas BeensDoneAttentionViolenceReaderPerceivePlotManipulationLoadDice Author:W. Somerset Maugham
“The absence of plot leaves the reader room to think about other things.” ThinkingRoomsReaderAbsencePlot Book:Reality Hunger Source: Reality Hunger
“Good characters the reader cares about combined with an intriguing plot. Do those two and you've got it made.” MadeTwoCharacterCareReaderPlotIntriguingGood Character Author:Bob Mayer
“A novel can educate to some extent, but first a novel has to entertain. That's the contract with the reader: you give me ten hours and I'll give you a reason to turn every page. I have a commitment to accessibility. I believe in plot. I want an English professor to understand the symbolism while at the same time I want the people I grew up with - who may not often read anything but the Sears catalog - to read my books.” PeopleWantGivingFirstsBelieveMayBookReasonTurnsI BelieveHoursNovelGrewReaderTenGrew UpPagesCommitmentGive MeI Believe InPlotContractsProfessorsEducateSymbolismAccessibilitySears Author:Barbara Kingsolver
“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.” PeopleKnowsWantWritingMeanStillsStoriesLastsReadingNovelReaderHonestlyRangeCaliforniaConfusedPlotReviewsShort StoryLast DayGoodreadsPoint BreakWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Mary J. Miller
“With a novel, you have the reader with you a lot longer, and you owe him a lot more. Obviously you have to have a plot - I say "obviously," although I think a lot of fiction doesn't, and nothing seems to happen. But to me, there should be something that happens, and it should be at least vaguely plausible. And because the readers are going to be with these characters for a long time, you have to get to know them and like them and want to know what happens to them.” ThinkingKnowsWantShouldLongCharacterSeemsHappensFictionNovelReaderLong TimePlotPlausible Author:Dave Barry