Each time I discovered a potential link between one character’s story and another’s, several more connections would reveal themselves, like a beautiful, complex web spinning itself.

~ Richard Scarsbrook

Richard Scarsbrook Author Character Development Characters Circle Of Ideas Circle Plots Fiction Novel Story Web The Writing Process Web Writing

If something unusual is what you really see and really feel, and if that’s what does happen to you in your real life, how is THAT called FICTION? One simple reason... that it’s the only way the society would agree to call it “normal,” based on the current level of development of their mentality.

~ Sahara Sanders

Sahara Sanders Fiction Fiction Quotes Mystery Paranormal Writing Writing Philosophy

It is generally supposed, and not least by Catholics, that the Catholic who writes fiction is out to use fiction to prove the truth of the Faith, or at the least, to prove the existence of the supernatural. He may be. No one certainly can be sure of his low motives except as they suggest themselves in his finished work, but when the finished work suggests that pertinent actions have been fraudulently manipulated or overlooked or smothered, whatever purposes the writer started out with have already been defeated. What the fiction writer will discover, if he discovers anything at all, is that he himself cannot move or mold reality in the interests of an abstract truth. The writer learns, perhaps more quickly than the reader, to be humble in the face of what-is. What-is is all he has to do with; the concrete is his medium; and he will realize eventually that fiction can transcend its limitations only by staying within them.

~ Flannery O'connor

Flannery O'connor Christian Novelist Fiction Fiction Writing Writing Writing Fiction

I'll call any length of fiction a story, whether it be a novel or a shorter piece, and I'll call anything a story in which specific characters and events influence each other to form a meaningful narrative. I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one. Then they find themselves writing a sketch with an essay woven through it, or an essay with a sketch woven through it, or an editorial with a character in it, or a case history with a moral, or some other mongrel thing. When they realize that they aren't writing stories, they decide that the remedy for this is to learn something that they refer to as the technique of the short story or the technique of the novel. Technique in the minds of many is something rigid, something like a formula that you impose on the material; but in the best stories it is something organic, something that grows out of the material, and this being the case, it is different for every story of any account that has ever been written.

~ Flannery O'connor

Flannery O'connor Fiction Fiction Novel Fiction Writing How To Write How To Write A Novel How To Write Fiction Novel Writing Novelist Story Writing Storytelling Technique Writers On Writing Writing Writing Fiction Writing Tips

Fiction operates through the senses, and I think one reason that people find it so difficult to write stories is that they forget how much time and patience is required to convince through the senses. No reader who doesn't actually experience, who isn't made to feel, the story is going to believe anything the fiction writer merely tells him. The first and most obvious characteristic of fiction is that it deals with reality through what can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, and touched.

~ Flannery O'connor

Flannery O'connor Fiction How To Write Fiction Novel Writers Writers On Writing Writing Writing Quotes

Authors are supernatural beings. They exist in the world, also in worlds they create, and in the worlds of other authors they read.

~ Lani Brown

Lani Brown Authors Fiction Writing

Early in 1967 Highsmith's agent told her why her books did not sell in paperback in America. It was, said Patricia Schartle Myrer, because they were 'too subtle', combined with the fact that none of her characters were likeable. 'Perhaps it is because I don't like anyone,' Highsmith replied. 'My last books may be about animals'.

~ Andrew Wilson

Andrew Wilson Agent America Animals Fiction Likeability Likeable Misanthropy Paperback Selling Sold Subtle Subtlety Write Writing

If you are writing fiction, think like a god. Release all the power of your imagination; create worlds and destroy them at your will, create as many miracles as your story needs

~ Bangambiki Habyarimana

Bangambiki Habyarimana Author Author Quotes Bangambiki Book Book Lovers Book Quote Book Quotes Books Creation Creativity Creativity Quotes Fiction Fiction Quotes God How To Write How To Write A Book How To Write A Novel How To Write Fiction Imagination Quotes Imagination Writing Inspiration Miracles Paper Success In Writing The Great Pearl Of Wisdom Writers And Writing Writers Block Writers Inspiration Writers Life Writers Lives Writers On Thinking Writers On Writing Writers Quotes Writers Quotes Books Writers World Writing Writing Advice Writing Books Writing Fiction Writing From The Heart Writing From The Soul Writing Inspiration Writing Life Writing Philosophy Writing Process Writing Secrets Writing Success Writing Success Quotes Writing Tip Writing Tips

Let your writing liberate you. Write with passion to allow your feelings to breathe and enjoy the journey across blank pages.

~ Amitav Chowdhury

Amitav Chowdhury Creativity Feelings Fiction Poetry Poets Writers Writers Quotes Writing

Convention itself, like metaphor itself, is not dead; but it is always dying.

~ James Wood

James Wood Fiction Literature Writing

I am convinced that if stories such as these have any lasting value, it is in revealing the kind of work young pulp-writers were doing in those days when rates were low and one had to make a typewriter smoke in order to keep eating.

~ Hugh B. Cave

Hugh B. Cave Fiction Stories Writers Writing

every man has his own story, his own agony(The Watcher O' The Dead)

~ John Guinan

John Guinan Author Fiction Writing

The details of what we call our lives go sometimes to form patterns of meaning not unlike those to be found in our preferred sort of fiction.

~ Gerald Murnane

Gerald Murnane Fiction Life Writing

great literature is literature that speaks to deep, fundamental human truths and experience in a way that is relatable to the reader and that may provoke engagement or facilitate insight into these truths and experiences. If these truths and experiences are about breaches of the normal, then surely horror has a place in literature, and in facts may proffer deep engagement with the most profound aspects of our existence. Sometimes only horror can say what needs to be said.

~ Jacob M. Held

Jacob M. Held Fiction Horror Horror Writing King Life Literature Nonfiction Philosophy Representative Stephen King Writing

I realized that my life of late had consisted of far too much dialogue and not enough exposition. I imagined an angry, bespectacled English teacher slashing his pen through the transcript of my life, wondering how someone could possibly say so much and think so little.

~ Catherine Lowell

Catherine Lowell Dialogue Exposition Fiction Literary Analysis Writing Writing Craft Writing Process

My father used to say that all protagonists were versions of the author who wrote them—even if it meant the author had to acknowledge a side of himself that he did not know existed. It just required courage.

~ Catherine Lowell

Catherine Lowell Authorial Intent Authors Fiction Writing

Then I realized the vital necessity of art. Human life, yes, you nurse people, you clean house, you market, but then comes the moment of solace and flight. i sit and write and summon other friends, other forms of life, other experiences, and the voyage and the exploration, the delving into character, the vast expanse of life's possibilities and potentialities, contemplation of future travels, of dazzling friendships, all this then makes the chores and the sacrifices beautiful because they are diverted toward some beautiful aim, they become part of the structure of a work of art.

~ Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin Fiction Writing

Writing is about truth, whether it be fiction or a school essay. Don't give in and 'fake it till you make it.' Criticize what upsets you.

~ Bryant Loney

Bryant Loney Fiction On Writing Truth Writing Young Adult

Fiction is entertaining. Nonfiction is epic.

~ A.d. Posey

A.d. Posey Ad Posey Entertaining Epic Fiction Inspirational Non Fiction Nonfiction Storytellers Storytelling Write Writers Writing Writing Quotes

Writing fiction is fun. Writing non-fiction is life-changing.

~ A.d. Posey

A.d. Posey Ad Posey Fiction Fun Inspirational Life Changing Non Fiction Nonfiction Storytellers Storytelling Write Writers Writing Writing Quotes

Typically, we start out with enthusiasm and then grow unsure--sometimes about everything.

~ Eric Maisel Ph.d.

Eric Maisel Ph.d. Characters Fiction Personality Psychology Writing

I write fictionWhat’s fiction?Fiction is an improvement on life.

~ Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski Fiction Improvement Life Writing

I have inflammation of the imagination.

~ Lera Auerbach

Lera Auerbach Aphorism Artist Author Fiction Imagination Musician Poetry Writing

I seek to take my audience on an emotional roller-coaster ride, a journey of laughter and tears and every sentiment in between.

~ Marc Royston

Marc Royston Author Creative Writing Fiction Literature Writing

Novels are just very, very, very long lies. That is to say, you’ve got to get your story straight!

~ Blair Thornburgh

Blair Thornburgh Fiction Lies Novels Writing

If one were to reply that those who compose these books write them as fictions, and therefore are not obliged to consider the fine points of truth, I should respond that the more truthful the fiction, the better it is, and the more probable and possible, the more pleasing. Fictional tales must engage the minds of those who read them, and by restraining exaggeration and moderating impossibility, they enthrall the spirit and thereby astonish, captivate, delight, and entertain, allowing wonder and joy to move together at the same pace; none of these things can be accomplished by fleeing verisimilitude and mimesis, which together constitute perfection in writing.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra Fiction Writing

Is the writer cruel that makes his characters suffer only to bring them to triumph or tragedy in the end?

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Characters Cruelty Fiction Fictional Characters Tragedy Triumph Writers Writing

When the imagination takes over, the second hand could be the hour hand to a creator of stories.

~ S.a. Tawks

S.a. Tawks Books Fiction Imagination Reading Stories Writing

The heart also knows things, and so does the imagination. Thank God. If not for heart and imagination, the world of fiction would be a pretty seedy place. It might not even exist at all.

~ Stephen King

Stephen King Fiction Imagination Writing

The only thing better than a well-read book is a well-read book only read by yourself.

~ S.a. Tawks

S.a. Tawks Books Fiction Imagination Reading Writing

The imagination is a wild and dangerous forest that is impossible to know the full might of.

~ S.a. Tawks

S.a. Tawks Fiction Imagination Reading Writing

The only thing more interesting than the truth is fiction dressed up as the truth.

~ S.a. Tawks

S.a. Tawks Author Fiction Imagination Reader Reading Spirituality Truth Writing

On the blank page all things are possible.

~ Marty Rubin

Marty Rubin Fiction Possibilities The Impossible Writing

Huh. Well you and I just disagree. Maybe the world just feels differently to us. This is all going back to something that isn't really clear: that avant-garde stuff is hard to read. I'm not defending it, I'm saying that stuff - this is gonna get very abstract - but there's a certain set of magical stuff that fiction can do for us. There's maybe thirteen things, of which who even knows which ones we can talk about. But one of them has to do with the sense of, the sense of capturing, capturing what the world feels like to us, in the sort of way that I think that a reader can tell Another sensibility like mine exists. Something else feels this way to someone else. So that the reader feels less lonely.

~ David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace Avant Garde Fiction Interview Transcription Loneliness Reading Writing

I'm a writer. I write checks. Mostly fiction.

~ Wendy Liebman

Wendy Liebman Fiction Humorous Quotes Writers Writing

Nothing was a natural predator of productive fiction writing like the cell phone. Ditto the laptop. As she had well learned, the laptop could destroy a day.

~ Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand Cell Phone Fiction Laptop Writing

My greatest qualification for writing fiction was my ability, as a child, to lie with a straight face.

~ Ashwin Sanghi

Ashwin Sanghi Fiction Lies Writing

There are a lot of ways for a novelist to create suspense, but also really only two: one a trick, one an art.The trick is to keep a secret. Or many secrets, even. In Lee Child’s books, Jack Reacher always has a big mystery to crack, but there are a series of smaller mysteries in the meantime, too, a new one appearing as soon as the last is resolved. J. K. Rowling is another master of this technique — Who gave Harry that Firebolt? How is Rita Skeeter getting her info?The art, meanwhile, the thing that makes “Pride and Prejudice” so superbly suspenseful, more suspenseful than the slickest spy novel, is to write stories in which characters must make decisions. “Breaking Bad” kept a few secrets from its audience, but for the most part it was fantastically adept at forcing Walter and Jesse into choice, into action. The same is true of “Freedom,” or “My Brilliant Friend,” or “Anna Karenina,” all novels that are hard to stop reading even when it seems as if it should be easy.

~ Charles Finch

Charles Finch Fiction Writing Writing Advice Writing Craft Writing Process

Characters are just extensions of my madness.

~ Mark Tilbury

Mark Tilbury Characters Fiction Writing

I enjoy writing fiction more than writing anything else. Wouldn't anyone?

~ C.s. Lewis

C.s. Lewis Fiction Novel Story Storytelling Writing
Load More classy quote icon