Assembling Quote by James Ellroy

Characters are incredibly important, but I tend to build them around the plot during the outline stage. However, once I'm writing the manuscript, the…

— Aimee Carter

I feel like I know how to write plot.

— Mike White

I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write.

— J. K. Rowling

Plot is not my forte. It's like I have to live in my head in the book for a while before I figure out…

— Erin Morgenstern

I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.

— Grace Paley

Normally I start with a plot, and write a synopsis, and the ideas come from the construction.

— Jo Nesbo

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

— Anita Desai

I took many notes, more than usual before I sat down and wrote Act One, Scene One. I had perhaps eighty pages of notes.…

— Charles Busch

So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.

— Jeffery Deaver

I retain characters more often than plot, but what seems to happen is that I latch on to specific moments, turns of phrase, and…

— Sarah Weinman

Often the starting point for characters, for me, is finding a little, most minor detail, and I'll go from there.

— Patrick deWitt

I plot the first 5 or 6 chapters quite minutely, and also the end. So I know where I am going but not how…

— Joanna Trollope