Ends Quote by Brit Marling

Once you play with these scenes and you're outlining it, again and again, and telling each other the narrative, and telling it to people…

— Brit Marling

If you're having trouble finishing a book, it might be that you're trying to fix it as you go. Just finish the story, no…

— Kimberly Willis Holt

Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the book as tight as…

— Sarah Dessen

Only in very rare circumstances will you see something cut out of my first drafts. Maybe it's because of the way I write. I'm…

— R. A. Salvatore

I never start a section of the story without knowing how it will end. I also consciously try to shape the story as though…

— Dave Barry

When I write my novels I don't really have a huge plan beforehand; I don't have the whole plot and architecture, so the story…

— Michael Ondaatje

The novel is never really in the first draft. The novel really happens in the revisions.

— Tama Janowitz

I always think it's better to take your time and go through a lot of ideas - and dismiss a lot of ideas -…

— Shawn Ryan

I am a hopeless pantser, so I don't do much outlining. A thought will occur to me, and I'll just throw it into the…

— Marie Lu

I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.

— Nora Roberts

The weird thing is that working within an established story was actually kind of liberating. You know the beginning and middle and end, more…

— Dave Eggers

Every first draft sucks, so when you have your favorite novel, and you're like, 'Wow, this is a masterpiece,' and then you write your…

— Tomi Adeyemi