“Expressing political opinion can be a powerful way to establish a character's voice when writing fiction.” WayWritingCharacterPoliticalVoicePowerfulFictionOpinionWriting FictionPolitical Opinions Author:Jen Lancaster
“The 'interactive fiction' format hasn't changed in any fundamental way since the early 1970s, in the same way that the format of the novel hasn't since 1700.” WayFictionNovelChangedFundamentalsFormatInteractive Author:Graham Nelson
“I think in our time, you know, so much of the information we get is pre-polarized. Fiction has a way of reminding us that we actually are very similar in our emotions and our neurology and our desires and our fears, so I think it's a nice way to neutralize that polarization.” ThinkingKnowsWayDesireEmotionFictionNiceInformationOur TimeRemindingNeurologyPolarization Author:George Saunders
“Fiction writers are strange beasts. They are, like all writers, observers first and foremost. Everything that happens to and around them is potential material for a story, and they look at it that way.” WayWritingFirstsLooksStoriesHappensFictionStrangeMaterialsBeastObserversFiction Writers Book:Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life Source: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life
“And I do think that great fiction, even when it's comedic, has an urgency or an inevitability to it, a sense that the writer absolutely had to write this particular story in this way.” ThinkingWayWritingStoriesFictionParticularUrgencyInevitabilityComedic Author:Karen Russell
“As a novelist, I mined my history, my family and my memory, but in a very specific way. Writing fiction, I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory, mature and transmogrify into something meaningful.” WayWritingMadeUseMemoriesFictionHappenedNeededMy FamilyMeaningfulNovelistsMatureWriting Fiction Author:Ayelet Waldman
“I am consumed, or I have been consumed, with these issues of motherhood and the way we act out societal expectations and roles. So both my nonfiction and my fiction have been pretty much exclusively about that.” WayHas BeensFictionRolesIssuesExpectationsMotherhoodNonfictionConsumedFiction And NonfictionSocietal Expectations Author:Ayelet Waldman
“A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell them to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning.” WayWritingSaidStoriesWould BeAsksFictionStatementsAbstractInadequate Book:Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.” ThinkingWayNeedsWritingMayFictionMinesFiction Writers Author:Wally Lamb
“In some sense, prose fiction is just a way of unlocking a space. If I can unlock the space, it comes out and it's vivid, I find that I care about it, and it's part of me.” IfsWayI CanCareSpaceFictionProseI CareVividUnlocking Author:Ben Marcus
“Science fiction has a way of letting you talk about where we are in the world and letting you be a bit of a pop philosopher without being didactic.” WorldWayBitsFictionScience FictionPhilosopherPopsDidactic Author:Brit Marling
“It may be far in the future, but there's some kind of logical way to get from where we are to where the science fiction is.” WayKindMayFictionFutureScience FictionLogical Author:Elizabeth Moon
“I wanted to be free to write the way I wanted to write, and my impression of Christian publishing, at least in fiction, was that there wasn't room for what I wanted to write.” WayWritingWantedChristianRoomsFictionImpressionPublishing Author:Sara Zarr
“The annual award of $5,000 goes to an author for a meritorious book published in the previous year for children or young adults. Scott O'Dell established this award to encourage other writers--particularly new authors--to focus on historical fiction. He hoped in this way to increase the interest of young readers in the historical background that has helped to shape their country and their world.” WorldWayYearsChildrenBookCountryYoungInterestFictionFocusReaderShapesAdultsIncreaseHistoricalYoung AdultBackgroundsAwardsHistorical FictionAnnualsDellPrevious Years Author:Scott O'Dell
“The truth is that literature, particularly fiction, is not the pure medium we sometimes assume it to be. Response to it is affected by things other than its own intrinsic quality; by a curiosity or lack of it about the people it deals with, their outlook, their way of life.” PeopleWayBookSometimesLiteratureDealsFictionQualityTruth IsPureAssumingResponseCuriosityMediumsAffectedOutlook Author:Vance Palmer
“I do love science fiction, but it's not really a genre unto itself; it always seems to merge with another genre. With the few movies I've done, I've ended up playing with genre in some way or another, so any genre that's made to mix with others is like candy to me. It allows you to use big, mythic situations to talk about ordinary things.” WayMadeDoneUseBigsSeemsFictionSituationOrdinaryScience FictionGenreCandyOrdinary ThingsScience Love Author:Rian Johnson
“There is more to be pondered in the grain and texture of life than traditional fiction allows. The work of essayists is vital precisely because it permits and encourages self-knowledge in a way that is less indirect than fiction, more open and speculative.” WaySelfFictionTraditionalPermitGrainSelf KnowledgeTextureIndirectEssayists Author:Charles J. Shields
“You don't buy into huge car chases or sensates or interstellar warfare, but you can buy into a loving relationship or a father-son relationship, and you can buy into the small humor. If you want to make your fiction universal, go small. That's the best way to do it.” IfsWayWantFatherFictionCarSonHugeUniversalBest WayWarfareFather SonInterstellarLoving RelationshipsFather Son Relationship Author:J. Michael Straczynski