James Jones Quotes

I'm here to get the story on to the page. It would be good to catch your attention, and I have to make you want to read on, and I suppose I prefer you don't actually think about the 'how' at all - the writing technique, the 'style', or even who it is that's putting this together.

I'm very comfortable writing in the first person; it dives into the character in a way that's difficult if you're writing in the third person.

This time all the historical details and things were right. But I'd written it again in third person, and people found it dry. I decided to throw that one away.

I think striking the right tone for your story is, if you like, the alchemical work of writing.

Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.

But I care about the reader, and I'm trying to keep the reader's attention for as long as I can.

When I'm writing, I don't really have much other guide than, 'As a reader, how would I respond to this?'

I like my first lines short and declarative. No complicated sentences. Of course, that's not really a Scott thing. It's pretty classic grab-the-reader technique.

I find it an easy way into writing pieces is to think what the character's voice is like, and start from there.

It's a dead give away of an inexperienced writer if every character speaks with the same voice.

I've never set out to seduce my reader. I don't see him at all clearly.

I don't look at myself as a writer; I am a storyteller.

It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.

I've always thought of writing as sort of active communication.

Well, in features, and in writing especially, it's often the style of the writer comes in.

Rather than a teaching tool, I think a novel is more of a witnessing entity. A witnessing entity? What is that? I just want the reader to step in and experience it as a story.

I have an affinity for writing in the first person. I love the intimacy of being dropped inside the character.

I always start a book thinking that it can be something other than first-person present, and I always come back to first-person present. It's just the easiest way.

I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.

They put it on the page because it sounded good or it looked good or they read it in a book somewhere that this is how you structure a script or something, and they just don't get it. It's surprising.

Understanding POV is essential, or ought to be.

A lot of writers fall in love with their sentences or their construction of sentences, and sometimes that's great, but not everybody is Gabriel Garcia Marquez or James Joyce. A lot of people like to pretend that they are, and they wind up not giving people a good read or enlightening them.

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.

Show, don't tell, is a mantra repeated by tutors of creative writing courses the world over. As advice for amateurs, it is sound and helps avoid character profiling, unactivated scenes, and broken narrative frames.

How many times have you opened a book, read the first few sentences and made a snap decision about whether to buy it? When it's your book that's coming under this casual-but-critical scrutiny, you want the reader to be instantly hooked. The way to accomplish this is to create compelling opening sentences.