Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Rule one: Write about settings you're familiar with.
Readers are paramount. I live to write books for them.
For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.
When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.
I spend about eight months researching and outlining my book.
Too much screaming in Congress. Too much screaming everywhere.
Robert Rotenberg does for Toronto what Ian Rankin does for Edinburgh.
You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher.
In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures.
In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.
Ideally, I like to integrate the human issues into the suspense story itself.
The easy answer is that writing novels is a lot more fun than practicing law.
I write pretty much anywhere - on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house.
Collins masterfully blends fact and fiction...transcends the historical thriller.
Sometimes you can't be what you ought to be, you can't have what you ought to have.
The best way to learn about writing is to study the work of other writers you admire.
People with children and people with their own business always pick up a ringing phone.
I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block, the problem is idea block
So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.
I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block.
I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.
The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.
I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry.
I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.
Of course, I write crime stories, and I have to describe violence and the aftermath of violence.
I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge.
I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important.
I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose.
Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.
And life changes. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot. And at some point, it just isn't worth the fight to fix it.
That's the past for you. Not only does it come back at the most unexpected, and inconvenient, times but it's set in stone.
But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet.
Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.
We have years to converse with someone, to blurt and rant, to explain our desires and anger and regrets - and oh how we squander those moments.
If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say
In general, I think, less is more, and that if a reader stops reading because a book is too icky then I've failed in my obligation to the readers.
If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say.
My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.
In the shaded portions where the two spheres of different lives meet, certain fundamentals- moods, loves, fears, angers- can't be hidden. That's the contract.
The recent fascination, I think, reflects the shift in approach by law enforcement officials to embrace technology as wholeheartedly as the rest of the world.
She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted.
When it comes time to write the book itself I'll shut the lights out, picture the scene I'm about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Yes, I can touch type.
It's becoming apparent that I like bad boys. That's one of my problems. They've all been bad boys. You're one too. You're a bad boy. But, I think you're a good bad boy.
I think a lot of young aspiring writers get misdirected; they think 'I ought to write this, even though I enjoy reading that'. What you have to do is write what you enjoy reading.
It means working harder to do the research but I don't really mind - I don't think I have what it takes to chase criminals through back alleys and wade through blood at crime scenes.
Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.
Throat clutching from the outset! The Never List stands as a sterling example of psychological thriller writing at its best. Cancel appointments and give up on sleep. It's that kind of book.
To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.
Six Seconds is a great read. Echoing Ludlum and Forsythe, author Mofina has penned a big, solid international thriller that grabs your gut -- and your heart -- in the opening scenes and never lets go.
Breathtakingly real and utterly compelling, Immoral dishes up page-turning psychological suspense while treating us lucky readers to some of the most literate and stylish writing you'll find anywhere today.