«It’s amazing to note the number of real-life activities and experiences that resemble drama, in shape, in sequence, in their expectations, suspense and satisfaction. Plots are contructed to re-create this sense of experience along recognizable lines, whether or not the audience is consciously aware of the parallels. On an unconscious level, plots are a working out of life patterns, patterns based on experiences and expectations of human beings.«
«The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.«
Agatha Christie
«You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.«
Stephen King
«Write hard and clear about what hurts.«
Ernest Hemingway
«Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?«
«I realized that the good stories were affecting the organs of my body in various ways, and the really good ones were stimulating more than one organ. An effective story grabs your gut, tightens your throat, makes your heart race and your lungs pump, brings tears to your eyes or an explosion of laughter to your lips.«
«True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.«
«Art is not the mirror of life, but the essence of life.«
«The darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter. And vice versa. «
«In the vast majority of stories, a character with weaknesses struggles to achieve something and ends up changed (positively or negatively) as a result«
«All drama is conflict. Without conflict, you have no action; without action you have no character; without character, you have no story.«
«The tragic fear and pity may be aroused by the Spectacle; but they may also be aroused by the very structure and incidents of the play—which is the better way and shows the better poet. The Plot in fact should be so framed that, even without seeing the things take place, he who simply hears the account of them shall be filled with horror and pity at the incidents.«
«There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.«
Maya Angelou
«Every myth is psychologically symbolic. Its narratives and images are to be read, therefore, not literally, but as metaphors.«
Joseph Campbell
«The essential component of all successful stories is the hero’s pursuit of a compelling desire.«
«Are my characters, at their core, reaching out for a primal desire - to be loved, to survive, to protect family, to exact revenge?«
«There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.«
Alfred Hitchcock
«Brevity is the soul of wit.«
William Shakespeare
«Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.«
Pablo Picasso
