My process is messy and non-linear, full of false starts, fidgets, and errands that I suddenly need to run now; it is a battle to get something - anything - down on paper. I doodle in sketchbooks: bits of ideas, fragments of sentences, character names, single lines of dialogue with no context.

Ellen Klages

Anything Battle Bits Character Context Dialogue Doodle Down False Fragments Full Get Ideas Lines Messy Names Need Now Paper Process Run Sentences Single Something Starts Suddenly

Related Quotes

Short stories are my favorite art form. A good one is compact and complete, a telling little slice of life, capturing a moment in time that - for the character - defines her, changes her, is the tipping point for all that will follow.

— Ellen Klages

ArtArt FormCapturing

Sentences are not as such either true or false.

— J. L. Austin

EitherFalseSentences

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

— Charlotte BrontÃ«

first-sentencesopening-linesopening-sentences

If you're going to read this, don't bother.

— Chuck Palahniuk

first-sentencesopening-lines

Ideas? My head is full of them, one after the other, but they serve no purpose there. They must be put down on paper, one after the other.

— Camilo Jose Cela