Nicholas Sparks Quotes

Working on the plot/story idea for my next novel ... It always takes time.

I really want to write another novel, and I am trying to come up with what the story will be. As I learned with 'Groundswell,' I can't force it; I just have to wait for it to come to me.

I'm always writing. There is always a story brewing in my head.

My favourite part of writing a book is thinking up the ideas, and that can start a long time before I actually sit down at my desk.

Deciding to write a novel about something - as opposed to finding you are writing a novel around something - sounds to me like a good evocation of writer's block.

I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down - it feels fatalistic in some way.

When I sit down to write a novel I do not at all know, and I do not very much care, how it is to end.

I spend about a year between novels.

It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.'

My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do.

'The Lake of Dreams' grew gradually, over many years, elements and ideas accruing until they gained enough critical mass to become a novel.

I spent some time, six months or so, ruminating about the characters before I sat down to write 'Faith'.

The cool thing about writing is that there is really never a typical day. Sometimes I get a rhythm going and head off to work every morning and come home at night. Sometimes I'll write for two days straight and then be utterly blank for the next two.

And once I know what the first page is, then the rest will come.

Usually after finishing a novel, I have a head full of bad ideas for the next one.

I think most writers will say that at the start of each book they think, 'I'm not sure I can do this.' But eventually, you reach a magical point where the story suddenly becomes real to you, and you become totally invested in it.

It's kind of a mysterious process, but something will catch my attention, and I'll make a note about it. I may even write a few pages about it, and then I'll put it aside, but I'll sort of keep it in mind. Then as time goes on, other things will gather to it as if it's a magnet, almost, and eventually, there's enough to make the story.

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.

I always say that, for me, writing a book is like a wacky Greyhound bus trip - I know where I'm starting and where I'll end up, but I have no idea what will happen along the way.

I never know how a novel is going to end, because you don't really know what's going to be at the bottom of a novel until you excavate it.

I don't begin a novel with a shopping list - the novel becomes my shopping list as I write it.

I don't ever want to impose something on the story. I want the story to tell me.

There are a few really fantastic stories left, and that kind of gives you some inspiration to find even new ones.

I think all writers write from the time they're really young, and you just start asking the question, 'What if?'

For the novels I wrote before selling anything, I didn't outline much. I had a vague idea of the story.