Frankisms

“A drop of ink may make a million think. — Lord Byron”

writing

“A flashback should be broken up and sprinkled through a scene the way it might naturally come into a character’s mind. — Jerry Cleaver”

writing

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. — G. K. Chesteron”

writing

“A good writer is a trained observer, a person whose senses are always alert to the sights, sounds, smells, feelings, and tastes of the surrounding world. — Dawn B. Sova”

writing

“A great many fine stories have been lost with the ring of the alarm clock. — Judith Barrington”

writing

“A great story has been, and always will be, about a character facing conflict and the suspense of not knowing what's going to happen next. — James Scott Bell”

writing

“A great story will always have its roots in this elemental question of life and death. — Dara Marks”

writing

“A great storyteller leaves us in suspense right up to the final moments. — Donald Maass”

writing

“A heroine being chased by a bad guy won’t take time to admire the china pattern in a cabinet or notice a stack of books unless the china is broken or she trips over the books. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“A house is just a house until it is occupied by people with problems. — Donald Maass”

writing

“A little trick that may help you get back to a project you don’t feel like doing is to give yourself permission to write something else—anything you want. — Susan K. Perry”

writing

“A merely good piece of description can be transformed into a memorable one by cutting away what disguises it. — Theodore A. Rees Cheney”

writing

“A name should reflect the personality of the character, sound natural, and also be memorable. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“A piece of fiction needs forward motion, and for that you’ll need to build pressure. — Carole Bugge”

writing

“A premise is any single image, moment, feeling, or belief that has enough power and personal meaning for the author to set her story on fire. — Donald Maass”

writing

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. — Jerry Cleaver”

writing

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. — Richard Bach”

writing

“A room without books is like a body without a soul. — Cicero”

writing

“A scene is a story in miniature—an action through conflict in a unity or continuity of time and space that turns the value-charged condition of a character’s life. — Robert McKee”

writing

“A secular writer has to sell thousands of books to be a success. If a Christian writer sold only one copy, but it changed someone’s life, he would be a success. — Terry Burns”

writing

“A series of short sentences and/or fragments in quick succession can convey urgency and danger. — Joyce Ellis”

writing

“A statement is quotable when it is extraordinary or wrong, when it comes from an authority, or when it expresses an idea so well you could not say it better. — Robert Pinkert”

writing

“A story doesn’t begin at the beginning; it begins in opposition to the ending. — Dara Marks”

writing

“A story is powerful because it provides the context missing from abstract prose. — Chip Heath”

writing

“A strong story has only one plot. Therefore, a strong story has only one protagonist. — Dara Marks”

writing

“A synopsis must focus on why the character is doing what he’s doing. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“A wise writer shows enough setting for the reader to envision the story world—and no more. — DiAnn Mills”

writing

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. — George Kennedy”

writing

“A writer ought to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. — Mark Twain”

writing

“A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. — Vladimir Nabokov”

writing

“A writer should use the language so that the reader doesn’t even notice the authors’ words and the way they are used. — Rudolph Flesch”

writing

“Action and character still must take precedence over setting if the reader is to be engaged in the book. — Terri S. Lesesne”

writing

“Action, reaction, decision — it’s what drives a story forward. — Lisa Cron”

writing

“Add images key to the scene: textures, smells, taste. It’s important to give the reader reality bites to ground him in familiar things and make him remember a time or a sight or a smell and identify with it. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“All aspects of the piece, whether slow or fast, must in some way contribute to the forward movement of the whole. — Laurie Alberts”

writing

“All books are divisible into two classes: The books of the hour, and the books of all time. — John Ruskin (1819–1900), Sesame and Lilies. Of Kings’ Treasuries, sec. 8”

writing

“All clichés can be traced to one thing and one thing alone: The writer does not know the world of his story. — Robert McKee”

writing

“All descriptions should be kept to as few words or lines as possible to keep the story moving forward. — Cheryl St.John”

writing

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath. — F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), Undated letter”

writing

“All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time. — Ernest Hemingway”

writing