“I feel like reading really defined me as a writer because I lived my life outside of my own body for so much of my life and I loved it. I've always been a reader. I think living all those stories served me to naturally take that next step to creating.” ThinkingFeelsStoriesBodyReadingNextMy OwnStepsReaderCreatingDefinedNext Steps Author:Stephenie Meyer
“I really like it when you can step outside of what's come before and find a surprise for the reader and find a surprise for yourself.” StepsReaderSurprise Author:Dave Gibbons
“To write and speak correctly is certainly necessary; but it is not sufficient. A derivation correctly presented in the book or on the blackboard may be inaccessible and uninstructive, if the purpose of the successive steps is incomprehensible, if the reader or listener cannot understand how it was humanly possible to find such an argument....” IfsWritingMayBookPurposeSpeakStepsReaderArgumentSufficientListenersInaccessibleBlackboard Author:George Polya
“The writer has to make pleasure for the reader - which, I think, is done by taking one's character's seriously and taking one's readers seriously -don't condescend or try to be tricky. Be a friend to your reader - I'd say that's a pretty good first step.” ThinkingTryingFirstsDoneCharacterPleasureStepsReaderFirst StepsTricky Author:George Saunders
“Rather than a teaching tool, I think a novel is more of a witnessing entity. A witnessing entity? What is that? I just want the reader to step in and experience it as a story.” ThinkingWantStoriesStepsNovelTeachingReaderToolsEntity Author:Lorrie Moore
“Limited points of view let the writer dispense - and the reader gather - information from various corners of the story. It all becomes a kind of dance, with the writer guiding the reader through the various twists and turns. The challenge is keeping readers in step, while still managing to surprise.” KindStillsStoriesTurnsChallengesViewsStepsInformationReaderSurpriseVariousCornersPoint Of ViewTwistsTwists And Turns Author:Jonathan Evison
“As an author, one of the most important things I think you can do once you've written a novel is step back. When the book is out, it belongs to the readers and you can't stand there breathing over their shoulders.” ThinkingImportantBookCan DoStepsNovelWrittenReaderImportant ThingsShouldersBreathingBack When Author:Madeline Miller
“Because, we assume, these days, you just get in a car, you turn the key, and woosh, you're up the road. Or even now, dare I say, you don't turn a key; you get in a car and you're up the road. And yet with this particular car, it was a five-step process to start it. So how do I let the reader know that?” KnowsTurnsProcessStepsFiveCarParticularKeysReaderAssumingDareThese Days Author:Jacqueline Winspear
“The relationship between book and reader is intimate, at best a kind of love affair, and first loves are famously tenacious. [...] First love is a momentous step in our emotional education, and in many ways, it shapes us forever.” WayFirstsKindBookLove IsStepsForeverEmotionalReaderShapesAffairIntimateFirst LoveLove AffairKinds Of LoveTenacious Author:Laura Miller
“It's disingenous for me to say that I wasn't trying to write a moral novel. By its very nature as a novel about the Iraq War, Fobbit steps into the political conversation. There's no way to avoid that. I can appreciate that readers are probably going to line up on one side of the novel or the other. I hope they go to those polar extremes, actually.” WayWritingTryingI CanWarPoliticalSidesLinesMoralStepsNovelReaderConversationAppreciateIraqExtremesIraq War Author:Dave Abrams