The only 'ironclad rules' in writing fiction are the laws of physics and the principles of grammar, and even those can be bent.
Open your soul and put it out there and dare the world to read it, ready to have them stomp on you and laugh, but ready to do it again the next day.
I really learned how to write from Robert Louis Stevenson, Anthony Trollope, and de Maupassant.
Authors - trust in your vision.
While I'm writing, I'm far away;and when I come back, I've gone.
I admire the person who can write it right off. Mencken once said that a person who thinks clearly can write well. But I don't think clearly--too many thoughts bump into one another. Trains of thought...
You write what you know, and I know rock and roll.
All morning I lay down sentences, erase them, and try new ones. Soon enough, when things go well, the world around me dwindles: the sky out the window, the furious calm of the big umbrella pine ten fe...
I wanted to be a politician and a movie star. But I was born a writer. If you're born that, you can't change it. You're going to do it whether you want to or not.
It's the writing that teaches you.
A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.
My characters still talk the way normal people talk. They argue, they are sarcastic with each other, they joke around. I usually end up with one outrageous minor character in each book that people jus...
Words are the bones. Writing is the lungs. Reading is like breathing.
This is the secret to mastering any discipline: as you conquer one, you'll find it easier to tackle another.
think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to f...
I trust my characters. They know their stories better than I do.
Writing is a team sport.
When will someone write from the point of view of a joke, that is to say theway God sees events from above?
Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay
Bulldogs are wonderful creatures to include in books. Besides their adorable bulldogishness, they provide the writer with a rare chance to use forms of the verb "snuffle.