5th July 2016 | for Creatives | novel writing, the successful artist, writing, KEEP CREATING, Robert Dugoni, James Rollins |
"What I try to emphasize to beginning writers is what Jim [James] Rollins said to me once: 'It takes time.' And what I've come to realize is, he didn't mean time chronologically. He meant it takes time to build up your portfolio of books and then for one of those books to hit."
"Newsflash: nobody has the time to write a novel except established novelists. And even then you'd be surprised how easily life intrudes."
"You've got to go, 'No, I can't come into work on the weekends—[that's] when I work on my novel.' ... People deserve those dreams, and they have to fight for them. You don't want to be at the end of your life and go, 'I met all the obligations people had for me.'"
"I would have bet twenty to one against my own success, but by continuing I could lose only pen and paper; and if the one chance in twenty did turn up in my favor, then how much might I win!"
"That critical fan base comes as you write more ebooks, continually learn and offer something new with each book. Deeper emotion, more twists, a new high concept or more raw gut appeal."
"Read the first five pages. Count clichés. If you find one, the buzzer goes off: it's not a serious novel. A serious novelist notices clichés and eliminates them. The serious novelist doesn't write 'quiet as a mouse' or paint the world in clichéd moral terms. You could almost just substitute the adjective 'cliché-free' for 'serious.'"
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