Meg Rosoff Quotes

Listen to great storytellers; slowly, you will learn about voice, timing, tension, structure, climax - all the things you need to tell stories that will capture the imagination of your audience.

I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end.

I love a really good storyline.

You can read a dozen different textbooks or how-to manuals that will tell you the basic rules of what makes a story - a beginning, a middle, and an end.

You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure.

Of course, I'm not allowed to talk about the script, but I can say it is a really good story.

My writing has always been what you call 'narrative fiction' in the sense that it's got very strong plots and twists at the end.

Plot is what happens in your story. Every story needs structure, just as every body needs a skeleton. It is how you 'flesh out and clothe' your structure that makes each story unique.

Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

In fiction workshops, we tend to focus on matters of verisimilitude largely because such issues are so much easier to talk about than the failure of imagination.

I write both fiction and nonfiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later.

Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.

I think a good story's a good story and a good character's a good character.

Good storytelling appeals to me - good writing.

I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.

A story is built on characters and reasons.

The parallels between a stage and a book are compelling. You, like all authors, create 'characters' in a 'setting' who speak 'dialogue' encased in 'scenes.' Most importantly, you - like the playwright - have an 'audience.'

The way I express ideas is through the plot, Suspense is an important part of expressing an idea.

My work as a screenwriter has influenced my fiction. Writing screenplays forces you to consider many elements regarding story structure and other narrative devices that can be used to enhance the infinitely more complex demands of a novel.

The mark of a writer is to make a story as likely as possible, and I've done my best to deliver authentic atmosphere.

Obviously, for me, story is first and foremost, even in the face of the attractive idea of having all the cast there, or having a great piece of talent come to it.

I've always written about other artists, or I write my thoughts down, but I've never written a story.

A short story is one idea; a novel is a whole soup of them.

The only thing I knew about novels from a technical point of view was that they should have conflict.