Tracie Peterson Quotes

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

I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin.

Before I ever begin writing a new story, I have to sketch my characters out on paper. It's part of my process of understanding who they are.

I make extensive outlines before I write a book. I usually know what will happen. I know the characters, and I know what they are about.

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

So in the first draft, I'm inventing people and place with a broad schematic idea of what's going to happen. In the process, of course, I discover all sorts of bigger and more substantial things.

Often, writer's block will occur when I don't understand a character or his/her motivations. So I will make notes analysing characters.

I sometimes start keeping a journal about the writing process itself. Particularly when I get the ideas, and I am trying to brood over the chaos phase. In writing a novel, you really have to brood over a lot of chaos of ideas and possibilities.

When I start writing a novel, I have no sense of direction, no idea, really nothing.

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.

I think of it as the lasagna approach to writing because I'm always adding layers. I'll sometimes do it layer by layer, with dialogue, attribution, action, objects in the scene, setting... It can be sometimes that delineated.

I tend to start with a kernel, a vague concept, and just begin to write things down - notes about a character, lines of dialogue, descriptive passages about a place. One idea fires another. I do that for about a year. By then there's a story, and I'll go on to a complete first draft that sews many of those ragtag pieces together.

For me, plot always comes out of character, so I had to be sure of my characters.

My writing process hasn't changed - it's is the same whether I'm working on a Y.A. novel or, as now, a new novel for adults. A lot of reading, a lot of research if the subject warrants it, a lot of sticky notes and scraps of paper - and get to work.

It would not be amiss for the novice to write the last paragraph of his story first, once a synopsis of the plot has been carefully prepared - as it always should be.

I won't usually just sit down to write. I'd have done it in my head already. I visualise a story just like a film strip running in my head. I guess that is also a reason why my books have such a visual element to them. And it's what I tell young writers: plan your story ahead.

I may have a story idea but everything starts moving when I am able to see my characters clearly. They then organically lead or respond to the story or the universe I want to create.

I'll usually see a scene in my head, playing like a movie trailer. After I've written that scene, everything takes off from there.

I have 20 or 30 books completely plotted out in my mind - mysteries, thrillers, horror, romance, science fiction. You name it.

To combine telling an interesting story with brilliantly written characters is the most difficult thing to do.

I want to wake up one morning and know how to write page one, or page 10, or page 250. But I never seem to know how to do it. Every book is different and takes a different structure, style, process, etc. And relearning how to write is where the insanity comes from.

My writing process often begins with a question. I write down ideas and let them stew for about a year. Then, when I sit down to write, I make a list of characters and try to see how they fit.

I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.

The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.