Character Quote by Lucas Neff

My writing process often begins with a question. I write down ideas and let them stew for about a year. Then, when I sit…

— Cynthia Voigt

I love essays, but they're not always the best way to communicate to a larger audience.

— Chris Abani

My writing process is chaos. I usually start with an overarching theme. Then I establish several story threads, but I don't outline. I just…

— Lisa Lutz

I often have to write a hundred pages or more before there's a paragraph that's alive.

— Philip Roth

I start with an idea that is no more than a paragraph long, and expand it slowly into an outline. But I'm always surprised…

— Barry Schwartz

I write short, my words tight to the thread of the narrative.

— Carmen Laforet

You can't really write until the characters kind of show up one day and tell you what they're going to say. You start to…

— Chris Terrio

I always write too long in the beginning, then it is a matter of going through it over and over again on subsequent drafts,…

— Chevy Stevens

Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.

— Barbara Mertz

And when I'm writing, I write a lot anyway. I might write pages and pages of conversation between characters that don't necessarily end up…

— Norton Juster

Usually, I have a lot of acquaintance with the story before I start writing it. When I didn't have regular time to give to…

— Alice Munro

I feel like you just need to keep writing until the writing itself just begins to take shape.

— Ed Westwick