If you have no conflict, you have no story. That’s number one. That’s a rule of novels.
Whenever I work on a film, I have three rules. Only three and I tell them to every screenwriter. I say let’s retain the spirit and the intent of the overall story. Let’s make it the best film that we possibly can.
Novels are very different than films and I love to see someone else’s imagining of my story.
Dramatic fiction – William Shakespeare made his biggest mark writing dramatic love stories.
Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end?
In all love stories the theme is love and tragedy, so by writing these types of stories, I have to include tragedy.
Always stick to the story. It was when you started backtracking that people got in trouble. Interrogation 101.
Remember: A best-selling book usually follows a simple rule, It’s a wonderful story, wonderfully told; not, It’s a wonderfully told story.
I hope to be remembered as an author who defined and exemplified excellence in crafting the modern love story.
I’m writing a new love story, set in eastern North Carolina. Surprise, surprise, huh?
Salary stories are intrusive. Do you ask your neighbour what they earn for their job?
I’m not drawn to stories that are just sort of fluffy. I’m just not, and I’ve tried to, and as a kid I was never drawn to them. I always chose complicated.
One might ask why tobacco is legal and marijuana not. A possible answer is suggested by the nature of the crop. Marijuana can be grown almost anywhere, with little difficulty. It might not be easily marketable by major corporations. Tobacco is quite another story.
A dramatic, evocative, thoughtful and very accessible account of one of the most important stories of the century – and one of the most ominous, unless citizens are aroused to action to rein in abusive state power.
No man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her. Sex is always out there. Friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
One of my greatest pleasures is falling into a story someone else has written.
I don’t think you can write – at least not well – if you don’t love stories, love the written word.
Mary Stewart will always be my goddess. I can pick up one of her early books – one I’ve read a dozen times – and still slide right into the story.
For over a year I continued to submit mss, and have them rejected – the last few with rejection letters indicated the story was pretty good, but I was American.
A good story’s like a door, and you can go through it whenever you need to. After you’ve read it or seen it or heard it, you can still go back through it. Once it’s yours, it’s always yours.