“All I dreamed about Dr. Jekyll was that one man was being pressed into a cabinet, when he swallowed a drug and changed into another being. I awoke and said at once that I had found the missing link for which I had been looking so long, and before I went again to sleep almost every detail of the story, as it stands, was clear to me. Of course, writing it was another thing.” MenWritingLongSaidStoriesCoursesFoundSleepClearMissingChangedDrugDetailsOne ManLinksDrsCabinetsJekyll Book:The complete short stories Source: The complete short stories
“For me, there's a fine line between telling a story that's fictional with lots of details and then removing yourself too much from it, so it's bloodless, a little too fictional.” LittlesStoriesLinesToo MuchFineDetailsFine Lines Author:Aimee Mann
“Sports biography at its best. Rich in period detail, anecdote, and fresh perspective, Strong Boy paints both the good and the bad sides of success, as America's growing celebrity culture turned a simple Irish American gladiator into a national, in fact international hero. A very human story with profound parallels for our sports-obsessed culture today!” HumansFactsStoriesTodayAmericaCultureStrongSportsSidesSimpleBoysRichGrowingPerspectiveHeroPeriodsProfoundPaintInternationalDetailsObsessedBiographiesParallelsAnecdotesCelebrity Culture Author:Nigel Hamilton
“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
“The idea that you could stitch together every detail episode to episode and preserve continuity for the length of a season and tell a story while using no time cuts, no flashbacks, nothing but pure real time just seemed too difficult.” IdeasRealStoriesTogetherDifficultCuttingPureSeasonsDetailsPreservesLengthEpisodesContinuityStitchesFlashback Author:Michael Loceff
“Were really trying to make Crisis as accessible as possible, which is extremely difficult to do because it involves so many characters. But, again, you dont need to know all the details. Obviously the mainstays are there Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and heavily focused on. There are a ton of great characters, and a lot happens to them over the course of Infinite Crisis . Some change and evolve, others fall, but it really is about trying to bring everybody on stage. We probably have 90 percent of the DCU showing up, if not more but without losing focus on what the story is.” IfsKnowsNeedsTryingCharacterStoriesHappensFallCoursesDifficultWonderFocusStageLosingPercentInfiniteCrisisDetailsFocusedEvolveShowing UpGreat CharacterWonder WomanLosing Focus Author:Geoff Johns
“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
“I should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupation with the Lord of the Rings, the knowledge that it would be finished in great detail or not at all, and the fear (near certainty) that it would be 'not at all'. The war had arisen to darken all horizons. But no such analyses are a complete explanation even of a short story.” ShouldWarStoriesWould BeMy OwnLordTreeDetailsFinishedRingsCertaintyAnalysisExplanationHorizonOccupationShort Story Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
“If all stories are fiction, fiction can be true -- not in detail or fact, but in some transformed version of feeling. If there is a memory of paradise, paradise can exist, in some other place or country dimensionally reminiscent of our own. The sad stories live there too, but in that country, we know what they mean and why they happened. We make our way back from them, finding the way through a bountiful wilderness we begin to understand. Years are nothing: Story conquers all distance.” IfsKnowsWayYearsMeanCountryFactsStoriesFeelingsMemoriesFictionHappenedFindingsDistanceDetailsVersionsBeing TrueConquerParadiseWildernessTransformedSad Story Author:Jayne Anne Phillips
“Patience is a most necessary qualification for business; many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request. One must seem to hear the unreasonable demands of the petulant, unmoved, and the tedious details of the dull, untired. That is the least price that a man must pay for a high station.” MenStoriesSeemsPayHeardDemandPatienceDetailsGrantedDullStationsRequestTediousUnreasonableQualifications Author:Bill Vaughan
“Well, I don't ever leave out details, in that I don't come up with information or description which I don't then use. I only ever come up with what seems to me absolutely essential to make the story work. I'm not usually an overwriter. As I revise, it's usually a matter of adding in as much vivid details as seem necessary to make the story come clear without slowing down the momentum of the story.” WellsMatterStoriesUseSeemsClearInformationEssentialsCome UpDetailsDescriptionSlow DownVividMomentumSlowing Author:Kelly Link
“Lemberger's stories are marvelous compounds of scholarship, imagination and empathy. Brought to life with rich historical detail, these biblical women, sidelined and silenced for centuries, prove to be audacious, utterly relatable, and spellbinding companions.” StoriesImaginationRichCenturyProveEmpathyHistoricalDetailsCompanionBiblicalMarvelousRelatableScholarshipCompoundsAudacious Author:Michelle Huneven
“The Da Vinci Code may well be the only novel ever written that begins with the word 'renowned'... I think what enabled the first word to tip me off that I was about to spend a number of hours in the company of one of the worst prose stylists in the history of literature was this. Putting curriculum vitae details into complex modifiers on proper names or definite descriptions is what you do in journalistic stories about deaths; you just don't do it in describing an event in a narrative... Why did I keep reading? Because London Heathrow is a long way from San Francisco International.” ThinkingWayFirstsWellsMayLongBookStoriesReadingLiteratureNamesLanguageHoursNumbersCompanyNovelWrittenWorstEventsComplexesInternationalDetailsLondonNarrativeCodeProseDescriptionDefiniteLong WaySan FranciscoDescribingCurriculumStylistJournalisticRenownedDa Vinci Code Author:Geoffrey K. Pullum
“Among other things they picked out a detail that Charles had been offered the Governorship of Hong Kong in its dying days by Thatcher in return for shutting up about the inner cities. He quite rightly in my view led the paper on this story.” StoriesLiteratureViewsCitiesDyingReturnPaperDetailsHong KongInner City Author:Anthony Holden
“Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.” WritingHumansStoriesDetailsShort StoryWriters And WritingWriting By WritersBeautiful WritingStory WritingWriting StoriesStory WritersWriting Short StoriesShort Writing Author:Ernest Hemingway
“You can't really learn God's hope like you learn the logic of an argument or the details of a story. It's more like learning to belly laugh. You catch hope from someone who has it down in their gut.” StoriesLaughingLike YouArgumentLogicDetailsGutsBellyBelly Laughs Author:Shane Claiborne
“Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself. Which calls for details; any good lie does.” WritingTryingDoeStoriesLyingNovelDetailsUntrueTrue StoryBelievableGood Lies Author:Anne Tyler
“On the plane, an eight-year-old with an excess of testosterone keeps running across my feet. Finally I grab him by his T-shirt and say, very sweetly, 'Listen, darling, if you don't stop trampling me I'm going to make you sit on my lap while I tell you my entire life story. Including a lot of details about drug rehab and my divorce.' He goes back to his seat.” IfsYearsStoriesRunningFeetDrugIncludingDetailsEightDivorceFlyingPlanesShirtsSeatsExcessT ShirtLapDarlingLife StoryRehabTestosteroneKeep RunningVery Sweet Author:Rosanne Cash
“Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones out of our minds come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at once. It takes time. Continue to turn over and over the organic details of your life until some of them fall through the garbage of discursive thoughts to the solid ground of black soil.” MindDoeStoriesBodyTurnsFallBlackDetailsBonesCoffeeHeatSoilThrownTake TimeGarbageGrindFertileSteakIt Takes TimeNitrogenSpinachFertile SoilEggshellsDecomposition Author:Natalie Goldberg