Nothing’s a better cure for writer’s block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton.
Creativity and intelligence, rather than violence, are the best problem solvers.
Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible.
The recipe for great art has always been misery and a good bowel movement.
I’ve found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it.
If you treat your characters like people, they’ll reward you by being fully developed individuals.
Writing a story, regardless of length, begins always with a single word.
If you focus on the humanity of your stories, your characters, then the horror will be stronger, scarier. Without the humanity, the horror becomes nothing more than a tawdry parlor trick. All flash and no magic, and worst of all, no heart.
When you’re writing what you love, it’s the most fun you can have with your clothing still on, unless of course, you write naked.
If you write a kid’s book only for kids, then you have failed.
You’re never as good a writer as you think you are, and you’re never as bad. Just keep reading and writing, writing, writing.
I write every day whether somebody pays me or not. I write every day whether or not self-doubt is kicking my ass. It’s what writers must do.
I write fiction. It may have mystery, it may have horror, it may have fantasy, it may have love, but like life, it’s all the same genre.
We often wait for that knock of opportunity, though I’ve found it’s better to just grab a chainsaw and cut open your own fucking door.
You cannot write your character until you know how he or she thinks, until you know what their philosophy is in the world that they occupy.
Keep being bold on the page, and in life, and people cannot ignore you forever.
Authors must spend months, years making fantasy believable in a single work while reality runs rampant and complete chaos elsewhere.
Write about the thing that scares you most or your most private confession and you’ll never have a problem coming up with decent fiction.
Audiences will admire your character’s strength but connect with them through their weakness.
Fear and self-doubt are the deadly enemies of creativity. Don’t invite either into your mind.
It’s my belief that people enter your life at exactly the right time.
Writers often torture themselves trying to get the words right. Sometimes you must lower your expectations and just finish it.
If you schlep a shit job everyday, keep and feed a little secret life–whether it’s writing, art, running, music, your thoughts. It’s yours.
I don’t use big words to show off because it’s ostentatious.
The best writers I’ve read possess oodles of self-doubt, yet claw their way up with each work and remain humble. Boastful ones, not so much.
Love it when a compelling new character kicks open your mental door, tracks mud across your brain, and props their feet up on your cerebrum.
Yeah, episodic doesn’t work. Your coolest character needs something big and meaningful to do. Otherwise, well, it’s just narrative shit.
I’ve found that busting your ass on a daily basis to make your art good, clear, and meaningful creates the most luck.
Even if you’re in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It’s important to keep telling yourself stories.
Don’t think about the writing process too much. Just do one thing: tell the motherfucking story.
When writing, I uncage KAT: Keep Adding Tension. Even if I don’t know where the story’s going, petting the KAT keeps it purring.
You can be a writer who doesn’t read everyday. But you’re not fooling anyone. It shows, rather embarrassingly, in your work.
When you print out your manuscript and read it, marking up with a pen, it sometimes feels like a criminal returning to the scene of a crime.
Regarding the creative: never assume you’re the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you’re masterful.
Always work with/surround yourself with people who help make you a better version of you. Kindly avoid those who don’t.
Successful writing is a slow, daily, meticulous form of mental illness.
A day of bad writing is always better than a day of no writing.
Writing a first-draft battle scene is akin to real combat—chaos, confusion, and you must keep your cool as you fire word bullets downrange.
Write for impact first, money second. If you do it the other way around, you’ll end up with less of either.
Any conversation including the mention of Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Emily Dickinson is one worth getting into or at least eavesdropping.
Mothman flew away from town, like a giant bat, and then disappeared from sight behind a thicket of skeletal autumn trees.