Art Quote by Julianna Baggott

When you get ready to write your novel, outline it first. There's nothing worse than getting halfway through and realizing you've painted yourself in…

— Janet Evanovich

A novel quite possibly won't be good and, even more possibly, will have not-good parts, but at least it won't shape-shift on you; at…

— Ben Dolnick

I plot as I go. Many novelists write an outline that has almost as many pages as their ultimate book. Others knock out a…

— Clive Cussler

I never know what's going to happen in a novel. I don't have a plan or an outline.

— Donna Leon

The concept of writing a novel and not knowing where it's going - I don't know how to do that. Novels are plot- and…

— John Irving

Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

— Joyce Carol Oates

I've found that in fiction - and this is just the kind of writer I am - I can't really work from an outline.…

— Jesmyn Ward

I don't see how anybody starts a novel without knowing how it's going to end. I usually make detailed outlines: how many chapters it…

— John Barth

“And form this kind of thought has emerged a new conclusion: which is that it is not only childish of a writer to want…

— Doris Lessing

In my experience, a novel is the culmination of various thoughts and impressions collected over time, until something comes along to give them a…

— J. Courtney Sullivan

A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to…

— Don DeLillo

Writing, for me, is a little like wood carving. You find the lump of tree (the big central theme that gets you started), and…

— Terry Pratchett