“There's nothing like having a sympathetic reader who asks the right questions, who understands what you're trying to achieve and only wants to make it better.” WantTryingAsksAchieveReaderSympatheticRight Questions Author:Donna Tartt
“If I begin writing a poem that means I'm intrigued in some way by whatever it's about and that if I'm not trying to find something new and pushing the envelope in the poem I can't expect my reader to be particularly excited about it either.” IfsWayWritingTryingMeanI CanReaderExcitedPushingSomething NewIntriguedEnvelopesPushing The Envelope Author:Rita Dove
“Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.” WritingTryingReaderCommitBeing YourselfGet AwayOverboardWriting Well Author:William Zinsser
“Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingWellsI CanTalkingReaderConversation Author:Christopher Hitchens
“They remain dead, the people I try to resuscitate by straining to hear what they say. But the illusion is not pointless, or not quite, even if the reader knows all this better than I do. One thing a book tries to do, beneath the disguise of words and causes and clothes and grief, is show the skeleton and the skeleton dust to come. The author too, like those of whom he speaks, is dead.” PeopleIfsKnowsTryingBookShowsSpeakCausesGriefOne ThingReaderClothesIllusionDustDisguisePointlessSkeletons Book:Prisoner of Love Source: Prisoner of Love
“To grow, to become spiritually alive, and vibrant, you really have to struggle. Without struggle, you do not move at all...I would appreciate it if readers who come to my work would try very, very, very hard not to think narrowly as we are taught to think in America.” IfsThinkingTryingHardAmericaMovingGrowsStruggleAliveTaughtReaderAppreciate Author:Alice Walker
“I know that as a writer I'm trying to, in some small way, return the gift that I got, and maybe provide a reader the kind of experience that has changed my life.” KnowsWayTryingKindChangedReturnReaderChanged My Life Author:Gregory Allen Howard
“Merely that you start off with ideas buzzing around in your head, and then you try to give them the simpler, more graceful shape, of a feeling that a reader might share. You learn to sing with, not argue at, your possible readers.” GivingTryingIdeasFeelingsMightShareReaderShapesArguing Author:Adam Gopnik
“Not everybody wants to call sin 'sin'! Some call it mischief. Some call it rebellion. And hardly anybody can agree where we should draw the line. ... Our courts are ... trying to define pornography, yet moral law is very specific to any reader of God's Word.” WantShouldTryingLawLinesSinMoralReaderDrawsAgreeCourtRebellionPornographyMischiefMoral Law Author:Paul Harvey
“We always for better or worse try to put on paper what's going up on screen - whether we're directing it or not. It's really just an extension of that habit which is trying to tell the reader what the movie will look like. Ultimately that is the job of a screenwriter to a certain extent.” TryingLooksJobsCertainReaderHabitPaperScreensExtensionsScreenwriters Author:John Francis Daley
“While the cast of characters stays the same, I always try to add in new information so readers get to know the people they care about better with each story.” PeopleKnowsTryingCharacterStoriesCareInformationReaderAddCastsNew Information Author:Jane Cleland
“While I hear from readers all the time that they love learning new things, I never want to do an "info-dump." Boring! I try to include enticing details and skip all the rest.” WantTryingReaderDetailsBoringNew ThingsSkipDumpEnticingLearning NewLearning New Things Author:Jane Cleland
“When I write fiction, I never try to deliver a message; I just want to tell a story. But I admit that I want the story to be memorable and the characters to touch the reader's heart.” WantWritingTryingHeartCharacterStoriesFictionReaderMessagesMemorable Author:Isabel Allende
“I like doing whatever interests me. It's a challenge for me to try to make good comics out of any genre I tackle. I trust my instincts in getting me through the more difficult genres for modern readers, like violent crime or horror stories.” TryingStoriesDifficultInterestChallengesModernCrimeReaderHorrorInstinctViolentGenreHorror StoriesViolent Crimes Author:Gilberto Hernandez Guerrero
“I think precision in writing goes hand in hand with not trying to say everything. You try and say two-thirds, so the reader will involve himself or herself.” ThinkingWritingTryingTwoHandsReaderThirdsHand In HandPrecision Author:Michael Ondaatje
“As a reader, I have a very short attention span and a low tolerance for boredom, and I find that comes in handy with my writing. If I get bored writing something, I pity the people who will then try to read it.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingAttentionReaderLowsTolerancePityBoredBoredomHandyAttention SpanShort Attention Spans Author:John Scalzi
“Remember that the reader's attention is yours for only a single instant. They will not use up their valuable time trying to figure out what you mean.” TryingMeanUseRememberAttentionFiguresReaderValuableInstantValuable Time Author:John Caples
“Most people write the same sentence over and over again. The same number of words-say, 8-10, or 10-12. The same sentence structure. Try to become stretchy-if you generally write 8 words, throw a 20 word sentence in there, and a few three-word shorties. If you're generally a 20 word writer, make sure you throw in some threes, fivers and sevens, just to keep the reader from going crosseyed.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingThreeNumbersReaderStructureSentencesThree WordsSentence Structure Author:Janet Fitch
“From the beginning I felt that I didn't ever want to leave the impression that the process of writing a poem is totally mysterious. I couldn't explain everything that went on in the creation of a poem, but I could try to explain as much as I knew. I thought readers deserved that. I didn't want to set myself apart as being someone special.” WantWritingTryingFeltProcessSpecialCreationReaderImpressionMysteriousSpecial Someone Author:Pattiann Rogers
“When I use a name or place, I want to leave the reader open to the waterfall of determinacy that it may provoke. And I don't know, but I must mention the name Borges. I try to mention it in every one of my works. It's a mark, a stamp, a sort of homage to Argentinidad. But it's an homage that works through pat phrases, those stock images that populate his work: the night, labyrinths, libraries. That is, I don't want simply to pay homage to Borges, but rather the contrary: to recall his commonplaces.” KnowsWantTryingMayUseNightNamesPayReaderMarkLibraryContraryPhrasesWorking ItRecallsProvokingStampsCommonplaceLabyrinthHomageWaterfallsBorges Author:Sergio Chejfec
“I'm speaking to someone I'm trying to get to fall in love with me. I'm trying to speak intimately to one person. That should be clear. I'm not speaking to an audience. I'm not writing for the podium. I'm just writing, trying to write in a fairly quiet tone to one other reader who is by herself, or himself, and I'm trying to interrupt some silence in their life, which is utterance.” ShouldWritingTryingPersonsFallSpeakSilenceAudienceClearReaderQuietFalling In LoveToneUtterance Author:Billy Collins
“As soon as I start to write I'm very aware, I'm trying to be aware that a reader just might well pick up this poem, a stranger. So when I'm writing - and I think that this is important for all writers - I'm trying to be a writer and a reader back and forth. I write two lines or three lines. I will immediately stop and turn into a reader instead of a writer, and I'll read those lines as if I had never seen them before and as if I had never written them.” IfsThinkingWritingTryingWellsTwoImportantMightTurnsThreeLinesWrittenReaderPicksStrangerBack And Forth Author:Billy Collins
“I had to do things to myself on the page that had been done to me in real life. I had to try and drown myself in the bath. You have to do that. And the impulse is to rescue yourself and to spare the reader, but I can't rescue myself. And why should I spare the reader when nobody spared me? It's telling people what happened.” PeopleShouldTryingI CanRealDoneHappenedReaderPagesReal LifeImpulseRescueShould ISparesBaths Author:Damian Barr
“The chief reason I shove the reader inside the body - or more specifically, the chief reason I try to get the reader to feel their own body while they are reading, is this: we live by and through the body, and the body, is a walking contradiction.” FeelsTryingReasonBodyReadingReaderWalkingChiefsContradictionLive By Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
“I wasn't trying to write a corrective novel - that would just end up tasting like medicine, and I tried to stay away from polemics as best I could. I think that, if anything, Fobbit is my way of showing readers there's another side to war - the backstage of combat, if you will. If you play a word association game with Americans and say "war," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Soldiers running across a battlefield through a hail of bullets, right? Rambo, smoke, explosions. In Fobbit, I hope readers will see something a little different” IfsThinkingWayWritingTryingMindFirstsLittlesDifferentWarEndsPlayRunningGamesSidesNovelReaderMedicineSoldierSmokeMy WayCombatAssociationBulletsExplosionsBattlefieldsHailTastingPolemicsRambo Author:Dave Abrams
“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
“I would also hope that readers receive a larger understanding, or a different understanding, of what it means to be human, than they might have had before. We suffer from being quick to judge, quick to make excuses for ourselves and others, and I would like the reader to feel that we are all, more or less, in a similar state as we love and disappoint one another, and that we try, most of us, as best we can, and that to fail and succeed is what we do.” FeelsTryingHumansMeanDifferentStatesMightSufferingUnderstandingFailingJudgingReaderSucceedExcuseDisappointWhat It Means To Be HumanQuick To Judge Author:Elizabeth Strout
“I try to end every chapter with an air of suspense. I try to leave the reader wanting to turn the page.” TryingEndsTurnsAirReaderPagesSuspenseChapters Author:Nelson DeMille
“I try to use short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters to keep the reader's interest.” TryingUseInterestReaderSentencesChaptersParagraph Author:Nelson DeMille
“I try to be aware of what I'm concerned about, aware of how I feel about myself in the world, aware of how I feel about the issues of the day, but I guess I don't want to write essays in my head about my craft and maybe it's because I teach and talk about craft of other writers as a reader. I feel the moment I start doing that is when it's going to kill me.” WorldWantFeelsWritingTryingMomentsTeachIssuesReaderConcernedCraftsEssaysKill Me Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“Now, as a reader, you shouldn't feel the decisions the writer makes about this DNA, or it would be boring beyond belief. But, as a writer, you're struggling to make these decisions. What should the title be? What's the first line? The point of view? And the struggle with the decisions is because you're trying to figure out WHAT IS THE NOVEL, WHAT IS THE NOVEL?” FeelsShouldTryingFirstsWould BeBeliefLinesDecisionViewsNovelStruggleFiguresReaderBoringPoint Of ViewTitlesDna Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“So it was doing all this research or going to the archives or doing all these interviews or traveling, and then trying as much as I can to delete all of that research in a later draft so that all the reader cares about is the characters.” TryingI CanCharacterCareReaderResearchInterviewsArchives Author:Molly Antopol
“By examining characters lighting the way to hell, as it were, are readers spared iniquity? Are stories a heeded warning, or merely an entertainment? Each story in the collection tries to wrestle with these questions.” WayTryingCharacterStoriesHellReaderEntertainmentCollectionsWarningLightingExaminingIniquity Author:Adam Ross
“As a publisher what you are trying to build is a long life for a book, to help it find its readers in many different ways, whether or not it made this list or got that review, etc. I'm sure some of that thinking has been useful to me as a writer as well.” ThinkingWayTryingWellsLongHas BeensMadeBookDifferentHelpingReaderListsDifferent WaysEtcReviewsPublishersLong Life Author:Danielle Dutton
“I have never had a point in my life to make. I'm just trying to entertain the reader.” TryingReader Author:Dave Barry
“When I'm teaching, I'm not really doing my job if the student who's always comfortable doing wacko stuff all over the page keeps getting gold stars from me for doing wacko stuff all over the page. A riskier assignment for that student, who might be used to hiding behind a lot of formal armor, would be to try to do something straightforward, traditionally, in which they are much more directly laid bare for the reader.” IfsTryingMightWould BeJobsUsedStarsStuffBehindsTeachingStudentsReaderComfortablePagesGoldHidingFormalStraightforwardArmorAssignments Author:John D'Agata
“I don't think writers should be convenient examples. I don't think we should make people feel settled. I don't try to be a gadfly, but I do think that real ideas are troublesome. There should be something about my work that leaves the reader unsettled. I intend that.” PeopleThinkingFeelsShouldTryingIdeasRealExampleReaderConvenientTroublesomeGadflies Author:Richard Rodriguez
“The first draft is for YOU, the writer; the second and subsequent drafts are for the reader. Trying to do both things at once — figuring out what we want to say, while also fashioning it for another human being to read — is the cause of writer’s block.” WantTryingFirstsHumansCausesHuman BeingsReaderBlockWriter's Block Author:Karen Karbo
“Mainly, I try not to think about my readers as I write - I just think of my characters and myself - If they're interesting to me, my hope is that they'll be interesting to others as well.” IfsThinkingWritingTryingWellsCharacterInterestingReader Author:Jacqueline Woodson
“I was interested first of all in trying to capture this myth that was always changing and to create some sort of a master story, some version of the myth that resonated with me, since I could have taken more or less any detail that I wanted or the opposite and try to put that down on the page in a way that I could express from that outset for myself and for our readers what it was that was so magical about [Buckminster] Fuller's way of putting together the world.” WorldWayTryingFirstsStoriesWantedTogetherTakenMastersReaderPagesOppositesDetailsMythVersionsCaptureBuckminster Fuller Author:Jonathon Keats
“I come from a nation where fantastic fiction has a very low status, unless it fits into some very specific categories or is written by already established authors. I don't by any means try to hide what I write, but the way people think in categories here is pretty extreme: it blots out discussing the actual work on its own terms. That's made me loath to talk about my own work in terms of genre, because once you get a label, it sticks and poof go a slew of potential readers and reviewers because eww, fantasy cooties.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingTryingMeanMadeNationsTermMy OwnFictionFantasyWrittenReaderFitLowsSticksExtremesFantasticLabelsGenreCategoriesDiscussingReviewersCooties Author:Karin Tidbeck
“Ever read any [Friedrich] Hayek? He's great. The Road To Serfdom is like... I'm not a big political-science reader, but I actually dog-eared my copy. I ended up going back through it and writing a précis, I was so impressed by this book. It's all about what happens when government tries to make everything right.” WritingTryingBookBigsGovernmentHappensPoliticalDogReaderCopiesImpressedPolitical ScienceHayekRoad To SerfdomFriedrich Hayek Author:P. J. O'Rourke
“The biggest challenge I think every publisher is facing is how do we get readers to pay for content? So we're constantly testing, trying new things.” ThinkingTryingChallengesPayReaderNew ThingsPublishersTestingTrying New Things Author:Maria Rodale
“There are some dark days when I do receive some racist mail or emails. But overall the response to me has been very positive. Readers relate to me not just as an African-American, but as an American trying to make sense of her personal finance, just like them.” TryingHas BeensDarkReaderResponseFinanceAfrican AmericanRelateMake SenseRacistMailEmailVery PositivePersonal FinanceDark Days Author:Michelle Singletary
“My experience may be different than theirs, readers can identify with trying to save for retirement or their own kid's college fund. In truth, the name of the column, "The Color of Money," has less to do with my race than the fact that the color of money is green and it's green we all need to live a good life.” NeedsTryingMayDifferentFactsKidsNamesRaceCollegeColorReaderGreenFundRetirementGood LifeColumns Author:Michelle Singletary
“Whatever I'm doing, I try to write well. I try to give the reader a nice, clean well-written surface, where the writing is transparent. It probably takes me longer to write things, but it's very important to me that the writing itself be good.” GivingWritingTryingWellsImportantNiceWrittenReaderCleanSurfaceBe GoodTake MeTransparentWell Written Author:Shelby Steele
“When I read to children, I try to become the characters. It's great if you can make a separate voice for each character. Sometimes you can lower your voice with excitement or get more intimate about it: you can lean forward and engage the children as a narrator or as a reader. It's particularly important that you find the voice that you want to use for each character, because then children can imagine that person as you're reading aloud. And of course, the illustrations help enormously.” IfsWantTryingChildrenPersonsImportantSometimesCharacterHelpingUseCoursesReadingVoiceImagineReaderExcitementIntimateImagine ThatIllustrationNarratorsReading Aloud Author:Julie Andrews
“When I write, I never think of segments as chapters; I think of them as scenes. I always visualize them in my mind. Then I try to get the scene down on paper as closely as I can. That's the one thing that readers don't see - what you have in your mind. The reader can only see what you get on the page.” ThinkingWritingTryingMindI CanOne ThingReaderScenePaperPagesChapters Author:Robert Cormier
“I don't consciously try to take my readers on a journey as I don't really think about my readers when I'm writing. I just try to write what I feel passionately about, to tell a story down onto the page.” ThinkingFeelsWritingTryingStoriesJourneyReaderPages Author:Michael Morpurgo
“When I was a child, I used to go wandering - disused railway-lines, old barns, dry-stone walls, strangely Pre-Raphaelite copses - it's much more fun to wander than to be guided, and you could do it in those days with freedom and without paranoia. In similar fashion, I try to allow the reader room to wander, even to meander, to almost lose themselves and their grip of the narrative.” TryingChildrenUsedFunLosesLinesRoomsFashionWallReaderStonesWanderNarrativeDryParanoiaRailwayBarnsStone Walls Author:Suhayl Saadi