Plot Movement Quotes

Keep your central character moving, discovering, learning.

Change is fundamental in story. If things go static, stories die.

The reader wants to see something happen between pages one and four hundred, and nothing happens if the characters don't change.

Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.

In everything I've written, the crime has always just been an occasion to write about other things. I don't have a picture of myself as writing crime novels. I like fairly strong narratives, but it's a way of getting a plot moving.

I'm a stickler for structure. So I tend to make sure I'm hitting certain points in the script and that I'm progressing and moving things along. You know, are the characters keeping the plot moving along? And are they true, and do I know their motivations?

When you have quick scenes, it becomes difficult to ascertain where your character fits and where they're going. I always enjoy scenes that have a movement to them.

There is nothing that's been in any of my novels that, in my view, hasn't been either illuminating surroundings or defining a character or moving a plot.

I think with musicals, it's much more part of the script. They don't want songs that would stop the show; they need songs that keep the plot moving.