Megan Abbott Quotes

I've learned never to try and force words to come.

I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write.

I'm not a believer that you have to write every day. If I felt industrious, I'd spend ten hours a week writing. The writing is going on all the time in my head; the trick is to capture it. Showers are great. Traffic jams are great.

Never sit staring at a blank page or screen. If you find yourself stuck, write. Write about the scene you're trying to write. Writing about is easier than writing, and chances are, it will give you your way in.

After a day's fishing, I'll know the solution to something or have good ideas that were not accessible before.

Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult.

The few words of a title are the hardest words for any author to come up with.

I write about two hours a day, and I write in fits and spurts - 45 minutes here, a half-hour there - and when I get stuck, which happens often, I take the dogs for a walk. But during the time when I'm not actually writing, I'm thinking.

If I was going to write something, I'd need to stop for three months and just see if I had any thoughts in there.

Some of the best writing I've done, whether I'm shooting a story or thinking of a script, I write it in my head as I'm running. Running literally jogs my brain.

My writing process is a mix of research, personal experiences, washing the dishes, raising kids while thinking - then writing.

When I write I find a quiet place.

Some writers sit down without a thought of what they are going to say, and they go through draft after draft.

Sometimes things just fall out of your head on the paper, and if you're smart, you learn not to touch them.

Mostly I sat down and said, 'I'm not going to write a boring story.' And that actually, surprisingly, solves most of your problems.

I can't write unless I'm overlooking water.

You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.

Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write.

I can clear my mind, and lyrics just come out; it's very easy for me.

While we were promoting 'Wide Open Spaces,' we set aside time to write. We went on several writing retreats where nobody could get hold of us. It was the only way we could take a step back and reflect and write and be living a semi-normal life for a while.

Showers last only 10 minutes, but you can't do anything else in there but think. The shower is probably the main place I come up with ideas. That's where I came up with the concept for OneVoice, my nonprofit organization.

Sometimes you don't really know what you're going to write about. I mean, there's times where you get into a writing room and it's a complete flop. And then there's times where you get to a writing room and you're like, 'Oh, I'm just on a roll.'

I know some writers that have a million novel ideas, but I don't.

I remember how I would wait for a play idea. I wasted a tremendous amount of time. I didn't realize that ideas could be made into movies or novels.

I wake up sometimes with an idea and then I write it down. It's not necessarily easy, but when you focus on something it comes.