01UndatedFresh writing and an original twist on an old idea. As much as this term is hated in the industry, it doesn't make it any less true. High concept. Simply put, you take a universal concept, something that has been done a million times (because everything has been done a million times), and add a fresh twist to it. Something no one saw coming. But mostly fresh writing! Keep it clean, simple, and compelling.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
02UndatedScrew the beaten path! Do your thing. Write the best story you can. the rest will fall into place.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
03UndatedI made a decision long ago not to make any apologies. Romance rocks, and even though my books don't actually fall into the romance genre, I tout them as very much being about the romance. It's fun. We're all obsessed with it. And it's human nature. Remember, NO APOLOGIES! Write what 's in your heart!Darynda Jones / quote ↗
04UndatedYou take a universal concept, something that has been done a million times (because everything has been done a million times), and add a fresh twist to it. Something no one saw coming. But mostly fresh writing! Keep it clean, simple, and compelling.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
05UndatedALWAYS hook a reader. If a detail is unnecessary, it doesn't belong in your work, long or short! Make everything intriguing. If you have to describe a desk, make it awesome.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
06UndatedI learn from everything I do, right and wrong. I think it helps me grow as a writer and a person.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
07UndatedThere is a light at the end of the tunnel. A finished manuscript is AWESOME! So go, go, go! *waves pompoms*Darynda Jones / quote ↗
08UndatedDon't let writers block push you around. Figure out what the problem is,whether it's with the ms or it's in your personal life, and face it head on. Don't stop writing. Just try really hard to work through it.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
09UndatedWe don’t read to observe the character from a distance. We read to become the character and experience the conflicts and rewards they are experiencing.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
10UndatedWhile the goal of a book is to create a positive emotional experience for the reader, the goal of the opening is to set the stage, to pull the reader in.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
11UndatedStep back and scrutinize your work, to delve deep into the meaning behind the words, it will get both easier in some ways and harder in others. Either way, you need to practice everyday. You will probably get faster with time, because you learn to do this instinctively, and the writing may flow better on some days more than others, but it doesn’t get easier. And if you aren’t writing everyday, you are doing yourself and your craft a disservice. Writing is a habit. Get into the habit.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
12UndatedIf you can master the opening, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
13UndatedThe key to high concept is that fresh twist. Make it a big one. Wow your reader. Force her to gasp when she comes to that part in your story.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
14UndatedThrilled that Reyes and I were outside, and taking that as her cue to get her freak on, Artemis ran around like a gerbil on meth, turning occasionally to make sure we were still watching. And God help us if we weren't.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
15UndatedHe was leaving my stepmother for a sailboat. Not that I blamed him. A sailboat would at least be useful.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
16UndatedCan I brush your hair?” she asked as she led the way, her disposition doing a 180 on a dime. Kids. Can’t live with ’em. Can’t eat ’em for lunch.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
17UndatedI could’ve knocked the shit out of her .She’d have good reason to roll her eyes then. But knocking the shit out of rude people wasn’t my style. Heckling them every chance I got was. Hopefully she’d screw up soon. I didn’t have all day.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
18UndatedBut have you ever seen one?....They shook their heads. "Not Physically, no. But if you look at this passage - "Man, she liked that Bible. I'd read it and could definitely understand it's appeal, but I didn't have time for this.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
19UndatedI also become the local computer nerd. The administration brings me in to fix all the computers, I create viruses to invade at a specific day and time. They call me in, and I eradicate my own virus, only to plant another one to go into effect a couple months later. They ask me why I can't just fix the computers once and for all. I tell them to quit going to porn sites and it will stay fixed. That shuts them up every time.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
21UndatedBye-bye. Nice knowing you. But if you are waiting for that perfect idea to strike like lightning during a dust storm (I live in New Mexico), you could be waiting a long time. Ideas are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I can’t walk to the bathroom without being hit with another idea. It’s what you DO with that idea that matters. Here is your mantra: BICHOK, BICHOK, BICHOKTranslation: Butt in chair, hands on keys. Just write. Every stinking day.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
22UndatedNo writing is effortless. I’m not saying you can’t have a good day where the words just kind of flow, but even those words have to be edited. Probably more than once. And I’m not saying a character hasn’t somehow gone in a different direction that I wanted her to go, but that was me, not her. I let her get away from me. I let her roam free and nine times out of ten, the result is not good. I have to go back and start over because she veered off the path of my book. She changed the vision. And I did that. Not her.Darynda Jones / quote ↗
