James N. Frey Quotes

• Writer's block is real. It happens. Some days you sit down at the old typewriter, put your fingers on the keys, and nothing pops into your head. Blanko. Nada. El nothingissimo. What you do when this happens is what separates you from the one-of-thesedays- I'm-gonna-write-a-book crowd.

  James N. Frey

  Block, Real, Book

  James N. Frey (2010). “How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling”, p.168, St. Martin's Press

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• To set a forest on fire, you light a match. To set a character on fire, you put him in conflict.

  James N. Frey

  Character, Fire, Light

  James N. Frey (2010). “How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling”, p.58, Macmillan

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• Novel writing is like heroin addiction; it takes everything you've got.

  James N. Frey

  Writing, Addiction, Heroin

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• You will never work through writer's block if you walk away from your typewriter. That will only make it easier to walk away the next time.

  James N. Frey

  Block, Typewriters, Next

  James N. Frey (2010). “How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling”, p.168, St. Martin's Press

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• All good plots come from well-orchestrated characters pitted against one another in a conflict of wills.

  James N. Frey

  Writing, Character, Plot

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• The opposing missions of the various characters create the plot.

  James N. Frey

  Writing, Character, Plot

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• When characters have different goals and are intent on achieving them, conflict results. If the stakes are high and both sides are unyielding, you have the makings of high drama.

  James N. Frey

  Drama, Character, Goal

  James N. Frey (2010). “How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling”, p.31, Macmillan

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• Fiction writers come up with some interesting metaphors when speaking of plot. Some say the plot is the highway and the characters are the automobiles. Others talk about stories that are "plot-driven," as if the plot were neither the highway nor the automobile, but the chauffeur. Others seem to have plot phobia and say they never plot. Still others turn up their noses at the very notion, as if there's something artificial, fraudulent, contrived.

  James N. Frey

  Character, Writing, Interesting

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• For some it is harder to write a novel than to row a bathtub across the North Atlantic.

  James N. Frey

  Writing, Novel, Harder

  James N. Frey (2010). “How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling”, p.151, Macmillan

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• It has been said that Ernest Hemingway would rewrite scenes until they pleased him, often thirty or forty times. Hemingway, critics claimed, was a genius. Was it his genius that drove him to work hard, or was it hard work that resulted in works of genius?

  James N. Frey

  Hard Work, Genius, Scene

  James N. Frey (2010). “How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling”, p.160, Macmillan

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• It is possible to combine a story line and plot line in the same work. Usually the storylines comes first, serving as a background to the plot line, but not always.

  James N. Frey

  Writing, Plot Lines, Stories

  7 Copy quote

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