There are a lot of ways for a novelist to create suspense, but also really only two: one a trick, one an art.
For me, art that's alive and urgent is about what it is to be a human being.
Cutting words can cut your readers but if the intention is pure, the story will resonate loud and true.
I never presume to give advice on writing. I think the best way to learn to write is to read booksand stories by bood writers. It's a hard thing to preach about. As Thelonious Monk once said abouthis...
It's a terrible mistake to let the perfect get in the way of the good. If you wait to publish until you have written a great book, you will never publish anything. Great books happen by chance, not by...
Live first, write second.
Authors, such as William Zinsser, Steven Pinker, Natalie Goldberg, and Stephen King, who have all written exquisite books on the art and craft of writing, have reminded me that it is the commitment to...
Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substanti...
It is only when you open your veins and bleed onto the page a little that you establish contact with your reader. If you do not believe in the characters or the story you are doing at that moment with...
You take a universal concept, something that has been done a million times (because everything has been done a million times), and add a fresh twist to it. Something no one saw coming. But mostly fres...
I usually end have one outrageous minor character. He or she says the stuff I wish I had said in real life. Readers will love that character.
A man's grammar, like Caesar's wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity.
Make today the day you begin that awesome idea you have had for years. Now go, write this book, and remember that today is an important day in history.
Writing as a creative art flourishes only when there are no rules. Rules stifle you from entering the silent and forbidden spaces where the core of the story is waiting to be revealed.
I have a great many opinions about writing, but I'm afraid that all of them are unprintable
Do not forget to write your sacred book.
Every writer in the history of the world has been afraid to put words on the page. But we only remember those who overcame that fear.
Upon the one thing every writer absolutely must have, and that is intellectual curiosity.
Trying to write something of permanent value is a full-time job.
In quickness is truth. The more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth...