Paul S. Kemp Quotes

I never write in a linear way. And I tell students not to. You can only know so much about a book when you first start.

I don't write a play from beginning to end. I don't write an outline. I write scenes and moments as they occur to me. And I still write on a typewriter. It's not all in ether. It's on pages. I sequence them in a way that tends to make sense. Then I write what's missing, and that's my first draft.

All of the little entries in 'The Cows' were written in an irregular way. There might be one or two done one day, and then two weeks might go by or four weeks, and then they were put in an order or sequence.

Partly because of the way I write - I don't work with an outline or in a straight line. I work where I can see things happening, and so I get lots and lots of little bits to start with, and I'm doing the research at the same time.

Just start the sentence...and see what happens. This is how we write.

People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research.

I write in a rush of memory.

Sometimes reading other writers helps. You learn some little technique that turns out to be useful, or simply are reinspired by the amazing things others do.

Every book is like starting over again. I've written books every way possible - from using tight outlines to writing from the seat of my pants. Both ways work.

My writing process is such that a story will be in my head for awhile, and I'll start making notes on my computer. I create character sheets that include a character's past, fears, goals and ambitions.

The writing process, it's too mysterious to try and describe.

Doing interesting things and then writing about them is the best way to become a good writer.

I must write the book out in my head now, before I sit down.

I never base characters on real people. There are people who do that but I really don't know how to do it.

I'm always looking at ways of shaking up the writing experience because I think it helps.

I don't always write in order, so composing multi-book stories could get complicated.

Novelists seem to fall into two distinct categories - those that plan and those that just see where it takes them. I am very much the former category.

The written word is the basic of everything. Most important, the idea, and after that, the dialogue. You can rehash the dialogue as you go along, it 's disgraceful to have to do this, but now and again you have no choice.

If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.

My first five novels were written longhand. So were hosts of short stories.

I write constantly about everything.

In the early days, it was, you know, I used to weep while I was writing. I used to grab at any kind of anything, any hint, any tip of how to make it easy.

I have heard of novels started in the middle, at the end, written in patches to be joined together later, but I have never felt the slightest desire to do this.

When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.

Anybody can do research. The plotting of the novel, writing the ending before you write anything else, which I always do - I don't know that everybody can do that. That's the hard part.