In older science fiction stories, they had to rely on storytelling as opposed to spectacle. The old run of the Twilight Zone, the star was the writing and the storytelling, and the characters and the twists and the cleverness in the setup and payoff and execution. - Josh Trank

When telling a story, you should have three primary phases in order: the setup, the buildup, and the payoff. - Tynan

The opening lines of a book are so important. You really need to somehow charm your reader. If you can’t get her attention in the first pages, you may have lost her. There has to be an ambiance. - Tatiana de Rosnay

Even if your readers don’t know what head-hopping is, by removing it from your novel you’ll give them a more immersive, suspenseful and authentic journey through the world you’ve built. Plus, you’ll ensure they’re reading your story, not trying to work out who’s telling it. - Louise Harnby

Books have a publishing standard, and every Indie Author is responsible to their readers in making sure those standards are met or exceeded. - Eeva Lancaster

If you look at all of the villains in the course of human history, they’ve all believed, delusionally, in the virtue of their actions. Every villain is a hero in his own mind. – Tom Hiddleston

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we're curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. - Walt Disney

Describing your writing as trash while you’re still drafting is like looking at a bag of flour and an egg and saying “My cake tastes like crap.” – Paul Grealish

Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke. – Joss Whedon

If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three. – Laurence J. Peter

If reading makes you smart, then how come when you read a book they have to put the title of the book on top of every single page? Does anyone get halfway through a book, [and ask] what the hell am I reading? - Brian Regan

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;Thou art thyself, though not a Montague…. O, be some other name!What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,By any other name would smell as sweet. - William Shakespeare

Write down everything that happens in the story, then in the second draft make it look like you knew what you were doing all along. – Neil Gaiman

Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn’t embrace it. I succumbed to it. - Rod Sterling

I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, I'll smash it with a hammer! It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius I say! Or, to save on postage, I’ll just poison him with this.- Yzma, Emperor’s New Groove

Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on. - Sol Stein

Exposition can serve as an explanation. It’s all in the arrangement…. Make them want the exposition so that, when you give it, it answers the questions they already possess. - Chuck Wendig

A little story is supported by a lot of untold backstory. What they get is more than what they see. - Karen Lord

Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters. - Cassandra Clare

I think the hardest part of writing anything is getting exposition out easily, without hitting people over the head with it. - Jillian Bell