Pre-Writing Quotes

I do a lot better if I sit around and think about a character for a couple of months.

I usually write things in my head before I ever write them down. When I write it out, usually I've already figured out what it is I'm trying to do.

I use a computer, but before I begin each new book I keep a notebook. I write down everything that comes to mind during that period before I actually begin. It might take months or weeks. That notebook is my security blanket so that I never have to face a blank screen (or blank page). But I print out often and my best ideas usually come with a pencil in my hand.

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 writing, stories would just be working in my head for so long that when I started to write I was deep into them. Now, I do that work by filling notebooks.

An outline is crucial. It saves so much time. When you write suspense, you have to know where you're going because you have to drop little hints along the way. With the outline, I always know where the story is going. So before I ever write, I prepare an outline of 40 or 50 pages.

I have a very long pre-writing process where I'm jotting down ideas in a notebook and ripping out relevant newspaper articles - a long fact-finding mission.

I do a lot of mental work before I ever start writing.

I like to write from scratch most of the time, but I like to have a backup plan just in case.

I know very few writers who outline fully before they start. It just doesn't seem possible to do, because so many things don't come out until you're absolutely knee-deep in the world.

Much of the activity we think of as writing is, actually, getting ready to write.

I know there are writers who get up every morning and sit by their typewriter or word processor or pad of paper and wait to write. I don't function that way. I go through a long period of gestation before I'm even ready to write.

Naturally, no writer who's any good at all would sit down and put a sheet of paper in a typewriter and start typing a play unless he knew what he was writing about.

I spend a lot of time outlining before I write the first word.

I very rarely write anything before what I see what I'm writing for.

I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book.

I was Paul Schrader's assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he's very much about knowing what's going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue - the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out.

Before I start writing, before I have an idea of where and when the story happens, I research it thoroughly.

Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.

Before you put pen to paper, before you ring for your stenographer, decide in your own mind what effect you want to produce on your reader — what feeling you must arouse in him.

Before I ever put anything on paper, Jerry and I would talk back and forth.

I always write after I think for quite a long time, so the actual writing time is rather short. I think a lot of the work gets done when you have something on your mind while you're doing many other things.

I really spend as long as I can sketching everything out and working on the structure before I sit down to type out scenes.

I always work from an outline, so I know all the of the broad events and some of the finer details before I begin writing the book.

I don't start writing a script until I can see it all in my head, then it's a matter of getting it down in white heat.

I always work from an outline.