Plot Quotes

• Plot comes first. The plot is the archictecture of your novel. You wouldn't build a house without a plan. If I wrote without a plot, it would just be a pile of bricks. Characters are your servants. They must serve your plot.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Character, House, Firsts

  The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

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• Surely it was time someone invented a new plot, or that the author came out from the bushes.

  Virginia Woolf

  Time

  Virginia Woolf (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)”, p.1933, Delphi Classics

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• It's hard to write a good plot, it's very hard.

  David Mamet

  Writing, Hard

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• Plot is just a fancy way of saying 'and then.

  Erica Jong

  Fancy, Way

  Erica Jong (2007). “Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life”, p.235, Penguin

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• The characters are the plot. What they do and say and the things that happen to them are, in a sense, what the plot is. You can't take character and plot apart from each other, really.

  Terry Pratchett

  Character, Happens

  "Terry Pratchett on his latest novel, his medical diagnosis, and more". Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2012.

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• Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.

  Ray Bradbury

  Running, Character, Snow

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• Plot is a map and I begin with it. It is what made me admire the novels of the 19th century; that the stories are foreshadowed. TheyÕre going someplace.

  John Irving

  Writing, Creative, Maps

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• I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. The opposite is not true.

  Michael Connelly

  Book, Character, Thinking

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• I definitely feel that plot flows from character. I dont believe that you can construct a plot and insert people into it.

  Lisa Unger

  Believe, Character, People

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• The main plot line is simple: Getting your character to the foot of the tree, getting him up the tree, and then figuring out how to get him down again.

  Jane Yolen

  Character, Simple, Plot Lines

  Jane Yolen (1989). “Guide to writing for children”, Writer

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• Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

  Nancy Kress

  Character, Conflict

  Nancy Kress (2004). “Dynamic Characters”, p.159, Writer's Digest Books

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• Plot is a literary convention. Story is a force of nature.

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden

  Stories, Conventions, Force

  "The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, nielsenhayden.com. June 22, 2002.

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• Our enemy is motivated by hatred and will not stop planning more plots against until they are ultimately defeated. Today was an important and necessary victory in the war, but there is a long road ahead. We must remain committed if we are to succeed and protect our liberty.

  Timothy Murphy

  War, Long, Hatred

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• Cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness. Girls like stories with real conflict; girls are smart enough to understand complex plots; girls aren't as easily frightened as everyone seems to think.

  Lauren Faust

  Girl, Real, Smart

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• All plot comes from the character's trying to get something, to achieve something, wanting, desiring, longing.

  Robert Olen Butler

  Character, Trying, Longing

  Robert Olen Butler (2007). “From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction”, p.139, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• When I'm writing a script, I don't worry about plot as much as I do about people. I get to know the main characters - what they need, what they want, what they should do. That's what gets the story going. You can't just have action, you've got to find out what the characters want. And then they must grow, they must go somewhere.

  Mel Brooks

  Writing, Character, People

  "Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview". Interview with Alex Belth, www.thedailybeast.com. February 16, 2014.

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• The Pixar people continuously amaze me. They come up with something that actually looks as though it takes place in this happy, real-world. Every plot line is not just plausible, but oddly authentic. The stories are full of adventure, humor and love. The characters are written with great human dimension. I don't know how they do it but they astound me.

  Tom Hanks

  Real, Adventure, Character

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• Sometimes I'll hear a phrase or a word and write it down in my little black notebook (a writer's best mate), then come back to it and work a plot around it.

  Paul Kane

  Notebook, Writing, Black

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• Mysteries and thrillers are not the same things, though they are literary siblings. Roughly put, I would say the distinction is that mysteries emphasize motive and psychology whereas thrillers rely more heavily on action and plot.

  Jon Meacham

  Sibling, Psychology, Action

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• A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise... Because this is how life is full of surprises.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Writing

  "Isaac Bashevis Singer Talks …About Everything". The New York Times Interview, www.nytimes.com. November 26, 1978.

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• Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.

  Harper Lee

  Writing, Character, Dimensions

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• Plot is merely the mechanism by which your character is forced up against her deepest fears and desires.

  Margaret Bechard

  Character, Desire, Deepest Fear

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• But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.

  Margaret Atwood

  People, Use, Life Has No Meaning

  Margaret Atwood (2016). “The Handmaid's Tale”, p.332, Random House

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• I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline.

  Ernest Gaines

  Writing, Trying, Pages

  Live chat, cnn.com. May 13, 1999.

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• A plot is like the bones of a person, not interesting like expression, or signs of experience, but the support of the whole.

  Ivy Compton-Burnett

  Expression, Interesting, Support

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