Here's the secret to finishing that first book. Don't rewrite as you go.
I try not to worry about rewriting books that worked well the first time. I'm too busy writing new books to worry about things that are already in print
I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't.
I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.
One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane.
Seventy percent of a first draft is garbage and 30 percent is gold, but you have to write 100 percent to get that 30.
My writing style is very sensual, as in sensory detail
I'm more influenced by my own interests than anyone else's. Writers have to entertain themselves, or they can't entertain anyone else
It all adds up; never discount your efforts, because small efforts build big things. One word doesn't make a novel, but one word does begin a novel, and from that small beginning everything else follows. Even if it's just 'The', write something on that blank page.
My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people
I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print
If people would write exactly what I wanted to read I wouldn't feel so compelled to write myself
Now that I'm being very successful, publishers are trying to mainstream me, but I'm unabashedly genre. It's what I like to read, what I like to write
I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn't write or read horror or fantasy, other than children's fantasy, until I was in my teens
So many wonderful books to write, and not enough hours in the day. An embarrassment of riches.
Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book.
I've been writing stories since I was 12. 'Writer's Digest' was one of my writing teachers, actually.
