I'm not going to tell a person how to think, don't believe in that. What I want to do, when I write these books, is just to say don't be so sure of yourself. Let me pull the carpet out from underneath you, and let's see if you can still find the footing.
I write a chapter, then edit it and edit it and edit it and edit it. I don't think we mine creativity from within. It's bestowed from on high, from God.
Which is - you know, like check it out, I'm pretty young, I'm only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. And it's exceedingly likely that anything I write from this point forward is going to be judged by the world as the work that came after the freakish success of my last book, right?
I'm more interested in interpersonal relationships - between lovers families, siblings. That's why I write about how we treat each other.
America, how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
It's such a risk to write a novel that it's easy to become conservative - you're spending what would be, for me, a couple of years of my life on a single idea. Which is maybe one of the reasons I write stories - if it doesn't work, you've only lost a month.
If I write in my name to the agents of England and France residing in Asia and inform them that Japan is ready to make a commercial treaty with their countries, the number of steamers will be reduced from fifty to two or three.
So what I do, more than play any instrument - I mean, I love to play - but more than that, I write songs. Songs that are about living, about what it's like to be going through all the things that people go through in life.
Everything I write should have lasers. That's my #1 rule.
I just don't write musically, but lyrically, yeah I write.
As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.
I am violently untidy. My desk is overcrowded. I write my first drafts in longhand in a long notebook using a plastic throwaway fountain pen. Then I work on a word processor using a different desk and a different room.
I write pretty quickly. Write pretty fast. I was an old press service man. That was part of the necessity of that occupation.
I write a lot of songs people don't hear. I really just enjoy the process. I finish 'em all. I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between the bad ones and the good ones.
I write a lot in my head. I've never been driven to write things down.
I am very happily employed as a full-time software engineer; I travel a lot, and I write books along with this here weekly TechCrunch column; and I still find the time to work on my own software side projects.
I write music that sounds complex but isn't. I frankly never think in terms of theory.
I write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated; it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am.
I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to.
I write based on powerful inner impulses, and those seem to shift over time.
I think I write songs because of pent-up feelings.
I write every day.
I can't help slightly falling in love with every character I write about. And I quite like writing about people who are vilified.
So one can say that I write all the time, that goes for the lyrics as well.
I write screenplays that don't get made and pilots that don't get picked up, and I re-write other people's movies, and those are all different kinds of fees.
I write from what's in my heart. I write what I love and have always done that.
I write from real life. I am an unrepentant eavesdropper and a collector of stories. I record bits of overheard dialogue.
When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.
I'm half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That's why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I've seen so many.
When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.
I'm not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.
The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.
I write 1,000-1,500 words. The next day, I rewrite it and add 1,000-1,500 words to the end of it.
Oh my God, I used to get heartburn and all sorts of indigestion and stuff because I didn't feel well. And you know, I sit a lot because I write, and I gained a whole bunch of weight. My vanity just got to me, and I was like, 'I've got to do something!'
Every time I write a song I feel really lucky and kind of surprised. Not surprised that I wrote it, but just surprised that things exist that you don't know about.
When I write my books, actually, I'm known for very logical rule-based magic systems. I write with one foot in fantasy and one foot in science fiction.
