Don Roff

“You can be a writer who doesn't read everyday. But you're not fooling anyone. It shows, rather embarrassingly, in your work.”

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

“Regarding the creative: never assume you're the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you're masterful.”

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

“Nothing says work efficiency like panic mode.”

“There is no right or wrong way to write a novel. Each journey is different for every individual work and for every writer. The first error is never to begin; the second is never to finish.”

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

“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.”

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

“A migraine is the cockblock of writing.”

“It’s hard to land a devastating jab/cross/hook/uppercut combo to your reader’s imagination when you’re telegraphing your punches.”

“Mothman flew away from town, like a giant bat, and then disappeared from sight behind a thicket of skeletal autumn trees.”

“But people in a small town tend to do a lot of talking, even when they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“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.”

“If you treat your characters like people, they'll reward you by being fully developed individuals.”

“When you're writing what you love, it's the most fun you can have with your clothing still on, unless of course, you write naked.”

“A writer always writes.”

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

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

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