Alan Jackson Quotes

I just come up with the stories and write them as well as I can. There's not really a great deal of strokey-beard thinking going on.

I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to think that what you need to write a novel is imagination, creativity and a facility with words. Yes, you need all those things, but a novel is a highly complex organism that needs to be dealt with in quite a logical manner.

As a writer, my only responsibility is to tell a compelling story.

There is nothing wrong with just telling the story.

As always, we start off with asking, 'What's a good episode?' We don't think about timing, and we don't think about logistics. We just think about what would be good.

I don't do issue writing. I do character writing.

I never let the technical stuff get in the way of the storytelling.

This is absolutely the true answer, no word of a lie, 100% guaranteed: Q: What's the best way to turn my idea into a story? A: Whatever works for you.

I can't tell a story just by deciding to tell a story, do it in a didactic way. I need to have my own emotion, to feel, 'Wow, there is something I can discover, I can create.'

Obviously, I love to do both contemporary and historical fiction. When a hint of a story grabs me, I try to go with it to see where it will take me whatever the setting.

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

All the writing elements are the same. You need to tell a good story... You've got good characters... People think there's some dramatic difference between writing 'Little Bear' and the 'Hunger Games,' and as a writer, for me, there isn't.

When writing, I'm not thinking about war, even if I'm writing about it. I'm thinking about sentences, rhythm and story. So the focus, when I'm working, even if it's on a story that takes place at war, is not on bombs or bullets. It's on the story.

Good scripts and interesting stories are hard enough to find.

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.

When you're writing a novel - at least the way I write is I work from what I would call 'emotional atmosphere,' ambiance to ambiance.

I get the beginning. I get the end. Then I write the middle. That's how I do it.

Once you come up with a premise, you have to work out how it all happened. It's a bit like coming up with a spectacular roof design first. Before you can get it up there, you need to build a solid foundation and supporting structure.

It's not easy to tell a story about writers and make that feel like a complete story and an interesting story.

I write in a pretty straightforward way. I kind of sit down at page one and start writing.

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.

A book begins with an image or character or situation that I care about deeply.

Technique is of less interest than character and story.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.