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Writing Quotes

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Writing Quotes

“When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.”

Knows Writing Matter Speak Brain Subjects Calm Block Plot Translations Subject Matter

Author:Tea Obreht

“A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes.”

Writing Action Plot Simile Pasta Garlic Cleavage

Author:Dean Koontz

“The craft of writing is all the stuff that you can learn through school; go to workshops and read books. Learn characterization, plot and dialogue and pacing and word choice and point of view. Then there's also the art of it which is sort of the unknown, the inspiration, the stuff that is noncerebral.”

Writing Art Book Inspiration School Choices Stuff Views Point Of View Dialogue Crafts Plot Workshops Characterization Pacing Word Choice

Author:Garth Stein

“I plot as I go. Many novelists write an outline that has almost as many pages as their ultimate book. Others knock out a brief synopsis... Do what is comfortable. If you have to plot out every move your characters make, so be it. Just make sure there is a plausible purpose behind their machinations. A good reader can smell a phony plot a block away.”

Ifs Writing Book Character Moving Purpose Behinds Reader Comfortable Pages Ultimate Smell Block Novelists Plot Outlines Phony Plausible Synopsis

Author:Clive Cussler

“I feel that discussing story-writing in terms of plot, character, and theme is like trying to describe the expression on a face by saying where the eyes, nose, and mouth are.”

Feels Writing Trying Character Stories Eye Faces Term Expression Mouths Noses Theme Plot Discussing Story Writing

Book:Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“In 'Law & Order,' your main job is to stay out of the way of the plot. On another show you'd receive your script and see stuff that seems challenging and feel excited that the writers thought highly enough of you to write it for you.”

Way Feels Writing Enough Shows Seems Jobs Law Order Stuff Challenges Scripts Excited Plot In-laws

Author:Jeremy Sisto

“I feel like I know how to write plot.”

Knows Feels Writing Know How Plot

Author:Mike White

“I'd love to be able to write crazy epic plots. I'm working on it.”

Writing Able Crazy Plot Epic

Author:Jami Attenberg

“It is a little out of touch to presume that someone wants to follow your every observation and insight over the course of hundreds of pages without any sort of payoff. That's why writing isn't a one-way street. You have to give something back: an interesting plot, a surprise, a laugh, a moment of tenderness, a mystery for the reader to piece together.”

Way Want Giving Writing Littles Moments Together Courses Interesting Laughing Pieces Mystery Streets Reader Pages Surprise Insight Observation One Way Plot Tenderness Payoff

Author:Christopher Bollen

“A dream inspiring a story is different than placing a description of a dream in a story. When you describe a character's dream, it has to be sharper than reality in some way, and more meaningful. It has to somehow speak to plot, character, and all the rest. If you're writing something fantastical, it can be a really deadly choice because your story already has elements that can seem dreamlike.”

Ifs Way Writing Different Character Stories Dream Reality Seems Choices Speak Elements Meaningful Description Plot

Author:Jeff VanderMeer

“I've always wrestled with the difference between plot and structure, and after re-reading a lot of writing books I realized I wasn't alone.”

Writing Book Reading Differences Structure I Realized Plot Writing A Book

Author:Jeff VanderMeer

“A lot of my books have been that way. My World War II thriller about Sarin gas [Black Cross] was published two months before the Sarin attack in the Japanese subway. There are very weird coincidences out there. And I do have one surefire plot I have not and probably never will write, because of my fear someone will carry it out.”

World Way Writing Has Beens Two Book War Black Months Crosses War Of The Worlds Gas Plot World War Ii World War I Coincidence Thrillers Subway Two Months

Author:Greg Iles