Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Plot is a literary convention. Story is a force of nature.Collection: Plot
That's the great thing about doing good: Anyone can do it, any time, no waiting periods or batteries required.Collection: Waiting
So many problems are solved simply by knowing enough verbs.Collection: Knowing
Just because you’re on their side doesn’t mean they’re on your side.Collection: Mean
There's a rule for what makes good fantasy work, and it's as strange as any riddle ever posed in a fairy tale: In fantasy, you can do anything; and therefore, the one thing you must not do is 'just anything.' Why? Because in a story where anything can happen and anything can be true, nothing matters. You have no reason to care what happens. It's all arbitrary, and arbitrary isn't interesting.Collection: Interesting
I believe God put that itchy spot on our backs just exactly where we can't reach it in order to encourage us be nice to each other.Collection: Nice
The advent of the internet has made so many things possible. Self- published recreational journalism has always been around; but back when you had to at least learn to run a mimeograph, and you had to pay postage to distribute your deathless prose, people who didn't actually have much to say for themselves found other hobbiesCollection: Running
If you ask 20 different readers why they read, they will all be right.Collection: Writing
Writers say many true things about their own experiences with publicity and promotion.Collection: Publicity
Sometimes writers say true things about the overall nature of publicity, promotion, and the publishing industry; but alas, not always.Collection: Publicity
Didn't need the user icon to know you're white and male.Collection: Icons
If this power could be used for good, it wouldn't be this power.Collection: Used
If there is no willingness to use force to defend civil society, it's civil society that goes away, not force.Collection: Use
I have to go make books. Sorry about that.Collection: Sorry
Don't use metaphors in fantasy; your readers will take them literally. Or they may take them figuratively - but if so, they'll also take your magics and transformations figuratively. Either way, you're in trouble.Collection: Writing