Don Roff

“Fear and self-doubt are the deadly enemies of creativity. Don’t invite either into your mind.”

“Writers often torture themselves trying to get the words right. Sometimes you must lower your expectations and just finish it.”

“A writer always writes.”

“Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible.”

“I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it.”

“The recipe for great art has always been misery and a good bowel movement.”

“Writing a story, regardless of length, begins always with a single word.”

“If you schlep a shit job everyday, keep and feed a little secret life--whether it's writing, art, running, music, your thoughts. It's yours.”

“Love it when a compelling new character kicks open your mental door, tracks mud across your brain, and props their feet up on your cerebrum.”

“A migraine is the cockblock of writing.”

“I don't use big words to show off because it's ostentatious.”

“Yeah, episodic doesn't work. Your coolest character needs something big and meaningful to do. Otherwise, well, it's just narrative shit.”

“I write every day whether somebody pays me or not. I write every day whether or not self-doubt is kicking my ass. It's what writers must do.”

“It's my belief that people enter your life at exactly the right time.”

“Nothing's a better cure for writer's block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton.”

“Authors must spend months, years making fantasy believable in a single work while reality runs rampant and complete chaos elsewhere.”

“If you focus on the humanity of your stories, your characters, then the horror will be stronger, scarier. Without the humanity, the horror becomes nothing more than a tawdry parlor trick. All flash and no magic, and worst of all, no heart.”

“Even if you're in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It's important to keep telling yourself stories.”

“Creativity and intelligence, rather than violence, are the best problem solvers.”

“You cannot write your character until you know how he or she thinks, until you know what their philosophy is in the world that they occupy.”