Tag Archives: Fiction Writing

Writers’ quote of the day: crime novelist Martin Edwards on improving a manuscript by revision

Posted on 21/10/2012 by

‘Revision is, for me, a crucial part of the process.  Although, to an extent, I try to improve what I write as I go along, the reality (for me, anyway) is that until I’ve finished the book, it isn’t possible … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Margery Allingham on planning your novel and controlling your characters

Posted on 07/10/2012 by

‘I don’t want it to be thought that I am one of those dear old ladies who just write down the first thing that comes into their heads and hope the finished page will be entertaining. Rather am I one … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: James Scott Bell on self-editing, cutting and adding

Posted on 05/10/2012 by

‘We usually hear that it’s a good idea to cut in order to make our books more readable. That is not quite correct.  The idea is to cut the parts that don’t hold the reader to the page.  Clunky exposition, … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Janice Law on ‘writing what you know’

Posted on 03/10/2012 by

‘One of the cliches of the writing business, and standard advice for young writers, is write what you know.  This is simply good sense, ignorance not being bliss in the writing game. The problem is that writing what you know is … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Ray Bradbury, Alfred Hitchcock and James Scott Bell on why fiction is not real life

Posted on 28/09/2012 by

‘Fiction is not reality!  Fiction is the stylized rendition of reality for an emotional effect . . . Reality is boring.  Reality is not drama.  Reality is to be avoided at all costs.  “We must stay drunk on writing,” Ray … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Francine Prose on learning to write

Posted on 23/06/2012 by

‘In becoming a writer, I read and reread the authors I most loved.  I read for pleasure, first, but also more analytically, conscious of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed, how the writer was structuring a plot, … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Ken Follett on outlining and rewriting

Posted on 14/01/2012 by

‘Everything is planned.  I spent a long time outlining.  It’s the only way I know to get all the ducks in a row . . . The research is the easiest.  The outline is the most fun because you can … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Edward Albee on the importance of reading bad novels

Posted on 29/12/2011 by

‘If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: John Grisham on the best writing decision he ever made

Posted on 30/11/2011 by

‘[While on an early book tour] a very young executive with a big book chain just said in passing that “the big guys come out every year.”  He meant the likes of Clancy, King, Crichton, Ludlum, Follett.  I heard that loud … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: M. J. Hyland on rewriting first drafts

Posted on 26/10/2011 by

‘I’ve never read or written a perfect first draft.  Perfect first drafts don’t exist.  And yet most writers, at the beginning of their careers, think they must.  This intimidating myth of effortless gift persists because successful authors aren’t in the … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Andrew Miller on creating fictional characters

Posted on 19/10/2011 by

‘Let it be loudly asserted that character, strong characters, are at the heart of all great literature and always will be.  Plot, even in detective fiction, is a very secondary matter.  Not many readers could outline the plot of The Sign … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Canadian novelist John Buell on why novels have to be more than setting

Posted on 06/09/2011 by

‘If you’ve got a good story your setting can be virtually anywhere.  And if you happen to be a Canadian, your setting’s going to be Canadian, but if you write a novel whose whole import is that you’re describing the … Continue reading →

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