Mark Waid Quotes

I don't make unconventional stories; I don't make non-linear stories. I like linear storytelling a lot.

In judging other people's work, particularly short stories, I have noticed how novice writers tell the readers everything about their characters in the first paragraphs, disclose their motives, reveal their recent activities and their future intentions.

Lots of times when I'm offered things, I can't see how a story gets filmed. Either it's too internal or it doesn't have a strong spine.

My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell.

For me, 'The Hobbit' is an object lesson in storytelling, both in terms of characterization and story structure. It is an exemplar of storytelling in that regard.

I could make up characters till the cows came home. Plot's what hard. Very hard.

A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.

If you go wrong in a novel, you can straighten it out in the next chapter. You don't have any room to do that in a novella.

My sister-in-law believes that few narratives are so tightly constructed that you can't skip boring bits and still keep abreast of what's going on.

Sometimes, I have themes that interest me or that touch on larger issues but, really, I'm just trying to figure out the plot, or how the characters work. I'm trying to make the best story I possibly can.

I usually give a book 40 pages. If it doesn't grab me by then, adios. With young adult books, you can usually tell by Page 4 if it's worth the time. The author establishes the conflict early, sometimes in the first sentence. The themes of hope, family, friendship and overcoming hardship appeal to most everyone.

I have always argued, in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people.

This is the story, this is your character, I have the sense of the landscape, I have the sense of the scene, I have all that stuff. But I'm also looking for something else to happen, an accident or something. You're focused on the story you intend to tell and then you have to have a peripheral net out to catch these accidents.

There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end.

As a novelist, I'm endlessly fascinated by human behavior and interactions.

I started as a playwright. Any sort of scriptwriting you do helps you hone your story. You have the same demands of creating a plot, developing relatable characters and keeping your audience invested in your story. My books are basically structured like three-act plays.

If you know exactly what your character knows, it's a drama.

I'm big on story structure. I studied with John Truby, who mapped out story by means of moral wants and needs, and that's what I do. Hey, so does John Irving.

It's nice to know when you're a part of a story, it's nice to know at least something about the beginning, middle, and end.

In order to deliver the emotional truth in the story, you have to include some of the literal truth.

I jump around in the plotting stage, where I basically just make a bulleted list of every damn thing that happens in the entire book.

In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the plot forward.

No, you don't have to start your play with a premise. You can start with a character or an incident, or even a simple thought. This thought or incident grows, and the story slowly unfolds itself. You have time to find your premise in the mass of your material later. The important thing is to find it.

I tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. Those things come later, for me.

My advice to aspiring writers of fantasy trilogies or series is that each book needs two main plots. There's the 'big story', the over-arching grand plot of the entire series, and there is the complete-in-itself, one-book plot.