writing

Y’see, I get so bored so easily. I like to start with a clean slate each time. Sure, I’ll have characters drop in and out of books but the main cast of characters always changes. Maybe I’m wrong but I think if had the same joe detective guy or gal, I wouldn’t write them as well; I wouldn’t do as good a job. ~  Carl Hiaasen 

“Not long ago I made a list of Doc Ford books I would like to do, and I came up with 11 pretty easily. I like to let the characters go their own ways and see what happens. I find them fascinating.” 

~Randy Wayne White

“If you cant laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.”

~ Johanna Lindsey

My job as the writer is to fool you. Your job as the reader is to see if you can catch me at it. ~ Sue Grafton

I began wanting to create a detective who really turned the tables on that image of women, to know that you could have a sex life and not be a bad person. You could have a sex life and still solve your own problems. It was eight years from when I started having the fantasy that I was going to create such a detective to when I actually sat down and came up with V. I. Warshawski. It was a long, slow journey to come to a writing voice and do that character. ~ Sara Paretsky

“I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.”

~ Lincoln Child

“When I write I pretend I’m telling a story to someone in the room and I don’t want them to get up until I’m finished.”

~ James Patterson

“When you’re building a character, or at least when I’m building a character, you start saying, ‘How am I going to make people like him?'” ~ John Sanford

“I needed to find my way to write. I need about six hours of uninterrupted time in order to produce about two hours of writing, and when I accepted that and found the way to do it, then I was able to write.”

~ Robert B. Parkter

“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing-writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” ~ Lawrence Block