Ann Leckie Quotes

I have heard of novels started in the middle, at the end, written in patches to be joined together later, but I have never felt the slightest desire to do this.

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.

Many fiction writers write for the critics or for themselves; they forget the common reader. I never do. I don't think journalism clashes with my fiction; on the contrary, it helps enormously.

I can't write unless I've got the voice for a character.

When I write, I try not to cast in my head, because then I'm writing to a major movie star, and it picks up those ticks, and that's not what I want to do.

Writing a novel - unlike operating a piece of heavy machinery, say, or cooking a chicken - is not a skill that can be taught. There is no standard way of doing it, just as there is no means of telling, while you're doing it, whether you're doing it well or badly. And merely because you've done it well once doesn't mean you can do it well again.

Once I had all the facts in, I found I didn't have the immoral courage to pull the caper. So I wrote it as a story. As a teenager, I didn't have any skills for writing as such, so it came out in 1500 words.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

The only other thing which I think is important is: Don't write a book or start a book with the expectation of communicating a message in a very important way.

I'm not a writer's writer. I'm not a craftsman. I could be, and that would be a one-book-a-year operation.

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.

I write what's given me to write.

All writers have their own pet commandments.

I don't really think in terms of making something that is going to be bought everywhere, because I don't read those things. My writing is a process in which I try my best to make good sentences and a sequence of events that is compelling and believable.

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'm not a dedicated writer in the sense of Stephen King.

I'm sure every author has their own process.

I know that when I'm writing, I always want to be directing.

The novelist's obsession, moment by moment, is with language: finding the right next word.

I'm open to writing just about anything. I love writing the books that I write. They do tend to be on dark subjects, but I don't think of myself necessarily as a dark-humored person. I like having a lot of fun.

I loved writing the Spellman novels, but I never had any plan to only write in one genre.

A lot of young writers ask me about my process. They know what they want to write - but they need to know how. What's the right way? How do the professionals do it? What's the secret?

It really helped me as a writer to understand how other writers think.

My method is, I just sit down and write a book.

A writer is what I am.