Nelson DeMille Quotes

I don't want my readers slowed down by long passages of narrative.

No matter what you write, it's a matter of putting words in a certain order so that the reader will be interested in what you're writing.

Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person's going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don't give them one.

Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader.

My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.

I still try to make the "next" book my "best" book. I want to grip and move you in unexpected ways.

In a sense, journalism can be both helpful and detrimental to a writer of fiction because the kind of writing you need to do as a journalist is so different. It has to be clear, unambiguous, concise, and as a writer often you are trying to do things that are more ambiguous. I find that writing fiction is often an antidote to reading and writing too much journalism.

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.

Crassly put: When I write, I am trying not to bore myself and my readers.

A young writer is easily tempted by the allusive and ethereal and ironic and reflective, but the declarative is at the bottom of most good writing.

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

Fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject

It's hard to tell if anyone's interested in reading a serialized story. But it's interesting to put in a cliffhanger each week. That was popular in old comic strips. They'd write a weekend story different from the daily strip. So people follow one story day to day, and a separate story on weekends. If you read them, you think "I'll read two more." Then you're like "I gotta find out!" And you read 500 more.

When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.

Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.

When you catch an adjective, kill it - perhaps the best possible advice for budding writers.

Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing; the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.

I try to end every chapter with an air of suspense. I try to leave the reader wanting to turn the page.

It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

What I always try to do in all my books is to make the stories such that if you don't agree with me politically or you're not interested in the thematics, the story will still keep you turning the pages.

There should be two main objectives in ordinary prose writing: to convey a message and to include in it nothing that will distract the reader's attention or check his habitual pace of reading - he should feel that he is seated at ease in a taxi, not riding a temperamental horse through traffic.

Sometimes you read something and it's just -- it doesn't invite a reader....Sometimes you read something and it's not saying, 'oh come in, come in have a seat. I'm going to tell you what happened.' Perhaps my writing comes off as conversational...and that takes effort.

Good writin' ain't necessarily good readin'.

I find it easier to write in these little vignettes; if I try to get any more heavy, I find myself out of my league.