I have written 30,000 words in a month - think of it - 30,000! I hope I am putting the right number of naughts: an average of a thousand words a day! For thirty days!
I wrote six nonfiction books before getting into narrative fiction with 'Robopocalypse,' including 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising.' My goal all along was to start writing fiction, and I guess one day I'd just had enough.
I wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. The story was so good that my teacher could not believe that a ten-year-old could write that well. I was even punished because my teacher thought I'd lied about writing it! I had always loved to write, but it was then that I realized that I had a talent for it.
I thought I could never write a proper book; I'd never done it before. But I thought I could write a sequence. Then I had a chapter. The next thing I knew I was turning acting down.
I remember being interviewed about my first novel, 'The Colour of Memory.' They kept using the expression 'your first novel,' and I said, 'No, I object to that phrase, because this is it for me.'
Frazzled and delirious, as I've just finished a new book of stories. I feel like Moses staggering down the mountainside with the tablets of stone.
I did not have one bad spell during writing - an unprecedented record.
I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb.
I have written more than 100 novels and novellas since 1983 - I was first published in 1985. There was an overlap of three years with my teaching career, but finally I felt good enough about my writing career to quit teaching and write full time.
I really absolutely loved writing my first book.
My first novel, 'The Lions of Lucerne,' just poured out of me. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment. My biggest fear and therefore my biggest obstacle to becoming an author had been, 'What if I spend all that time and the book is no good?'
I didn't make 'The New York Times' bestseller list until 'Charmed Thirds,' and then again for 'Fourth Comings.' It gave me a certain validation, and it certainly helps position me for future books, but it's not something I think about on a daily basis.
My whole life, I wanted to write. What validates you as a writer is the adulation of fans... and I've got that... 'Animal Review' is pretty well-known.
'Pitch Perfect' was my first screenplay, so it was like my little baby.
I wrote my first short story for a competition and won second prize. Another competition came up and I won first prize. The first story was published in a newspaper. The second went out on radio.
It's one thing you aspire to: someday, you'll be able to write a book.
I was going to write a book one day and I actually did. To have it is a major accomplishment for me.
It took me about 12 years to reach my million-word mark. The challenge now is to continue to challenge myself.
I'd never written a novel before, and I wrote a novel, and that turned out OK.
I wrote a novel in my early twenties; I won a high school prize - my short story got published, and I got 50 dollars, which was a huge deal.
I wrote my first novel, 'Deadline,' in 1994 as an experiment.
I loved writing 'Two Brothers' more than anything else I have written. It's the first book I've written that I've always known I wanted to write. Having said that, it also kept me awake at nights.
I'm never more miserable than when I write, and never more happy than having finished and having it sitting in front of me.
I'd never done anything useful as far as my writing.
I'm proud of what I write and feel endorsed by my readers.
