"I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but as the years wasted on, nothing ever did unless I caused it.”

—Charles Bukowski

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”

—Terry Pratchett

On people who are INTO it:

Have you ever had the experience, Jerry asks, where you look at something and go, ‘Wow, whoever made that—they were INTO it!’? “That’s what I care about. That’s all I care about. I don’t care about traits or techniques, I don’t care what you do or how you do it—I just want to see people and talk to people and be around peo

Safety may avoid embarrassment, but it is also boring.

— Kyle Chayka, Filterworld [pg. 52]

I think “And what else?” is the best coaching question in the world. It does two things: It extends the period of curiosity, and it tames your advice monster.

Work backwards from the emotion you're trying to create in the reader. Then let the structure follow.

Fiction is about letting go of control and letting a universe or character unwind through the aeolian forces of your imagination.