Patricia MacLachlan Quotes

I realized I had a novel on my hands, but didn't know where it was going to go. So I thought, 'I'm going to do everything that you're not supposed to do when you plan a novel; I'm going to step back and let this thing take itself wherever it wants to go, and I'm not going to worry about how things connect until later on.'

The way I write is very much without kind of a goal. I have something I'm interested in and then I decide I'm going to explore it. I don't know where the characters are going to go, I don't know what the movie is going to do or what the screenplay is going to do. For me, that's the way to keep it alive.

I like to allow a story to arise as I'm writing scripts. I find it horrible when I try to think of something for the plot without really being on the ground and seeing where it goes.

As far as personal philosophies go, I think you should know your ending. I know that's radically different from a lot of other writers who just organically like to find the story. Other than that, I try different things and mess around. I'm still just playing a good bit.

I don't like outlining, because books are organic things. Sometimes a book doesn't want to be written in a certain way.

I end up writing about all kinds of things. I never make an attempt to write about anything in particular. I don't have a little list of topics to write about.

I'm not the sort of writer who can plan out things. Mostly I have no idea where I'm going.

I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.

I simply don't understand authors that know everything before they write it; it seems so cold blooded. I think it's lovely when the story takes over and goes somewhere else.

When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. It's just a matter of joining the dots.

I just write what comes along. I don't have a detailed master plan.

I don't really plan too much ahead when I write, because otherwise, I get kind of bored.

I don't set out to write something. I more just write, and later on, I discover what it's about.

I do better just letting the stories develop. I don't outline very well, and I can't follow it if I do. Once I've outlined it, why write the damn book?

My publishers find me really challenging, as a lot of the time, I don't even know what I'm going to be writing about until I sit down to do it.

I don't plot, and I don't plan. I like to be surprised like the reader.

I usually know where I want to end up when I begin, but I have no idea how I'm going to get there... I don't write with an outline, and surprises happen on the way, and sometimes it changes.

I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story tell itself.

I'm not an outliner. I come up with a premise and then take it from there.

I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write.

My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly.

I prefer to surprise myself as I'm writing. I'm not interested in it if I already know where it's going. So I have only the most general sense of what I'm doing when I start a story. I sometimes have a destination in mind, but how the story is going to go from Point A to Point Z is something I make up as I go along.

I've just been writing stuff down as it comes to me. I haven't thought, 'Let me write some major opus here.'

I never make notes; just a few small details when I'm writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won't plan it. I'll speak the narrative in my head for a while.