“Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts - including my own - where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: “This is where the novel should actually start.” A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it.” FeelsShouldTwoCharacterStoriesMovingMy OwnNovelCuttingCrazyInformationEmotionalHugeAmountSceneIncludingDetailsAttachmentFadesChaptersManuscriptsLess Is MoreSmall Details Author:Sarah Waters
“I don't hold to the idea that God causes suffering and crisis. I just know that those things come along and God uses them. We think life should be a nice, clean ascending line. But inevitably something wanders onto the scene and creates havoc with the nice way we've arranged life to fall in place.” ThinkingKnowsWayShouldIdeasUseSufferingFallCausesLinesNiceSceneCrisisCleanWanderHavocAscending Author:Sue Monk Kidd
“I don't particularly like the idea that there's an arc to the story and that therefore in this scene you have to convey this bit of information or emotion. I like more the feeling that, of course, there is a shape to the story, but that each scene should feel right, should be true at that moment, and that gradually you accumulate these moments of truth until you get enough of them together that it becomes a story that's interesting.” FeelsShouldIdeasEnoughMomentsStoriesFeelingsTogetherCoursesBitsInterestingEmotionInformationSceneShapesBeing TrueThat MomentArcsFeels RightMoment Of Truth Author:Michael Winterbottom
“Tell me what you will of the benefactions of city civilization, of the sweet security of streets-all as part of the natural upgrowth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of. I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. If the death exhalations that brood the broad towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves were made visible, we should flee as from a plague. All are more or less sick; there is not a perfectly sane man in San Francisco.” IfsKnowsMenShouldMadeBodyFoundNaturalCitiesDestinyAirStreetsSecuritySweetCivilizationScenePureTravelSickTownsVisibleThriveBroadsSanePlagueSan FranciscoCompact Book:John Muir, in His Own Words: A Book of Quotations Source: John Muir, in His Own Words: A Book of Quotations
“I would paint a portrait which would bring the tears, had I canvas for it, and the scene should be -- solitude, and the figures -- solitude -- and the lights and shades, each a solitude.” ShouldLightFiguresTearsSceneSolitudePaintShadeCanvasPortraits Author:Emily Dickinson
“An enthusiastic desire of visiting the Old World haunted me from early childhood. I cherished a presentiment, amounting almost to belief, that I should one day behold the scenes, among which my fancy had so long wandered.” WorldShouldLongDesireBeliefChildhoodSceneOne DayFancyEnthusiasticVisitingOld WorldEarly Childhood Book:Views A-foot: Or, Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff Source: Views A-foot: Or, Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff
“I thought Big Sur would be a great break after the tour. You'd walk down this rickety ladder to this not-very-pretty beach scene; crashing waves, moss-covered rocks, weird ocean life. It was scary. It summed up alot of things in my life, like 'I should be enjoying this, but I'm not.” InspirationalShouldBigsWould BeEnjoyWalksBreakRocksSceneOceanWaveScaryBeachCoveredLaddersMossBig SurCrashing Waves Author:Trent Reznor
“Even one word, or certainly one sentence, should be able to describe the basic characteristic that the scene has, or the character has, or the story has. And then you begin to detail that one spine, and you have offshoots from that spine, and it becomes more and more complex, but all of it stems from that one-word, one-line theme, which can give the character, the scene, or the play its uniqueness.” GivingShouldPlayCharacterStoriesAbleLinesSceneComplexesDetailsSentencesCharacteristicsThemeUniquenessStemOne WordSpineOne LineOne Sentence Author:William Shatner