The writing is really important in books that affect me. I read for the writing. The story is usually of less interest to me. It's the words that break your heart.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Other writers definitely influence my writing. What encourages me and inspires me is when I read a good book. It makes me want to be a better writer.
Writing is something that I've always loved. That stems from my love of being a reader.
I'm not one of those true writers who can't bear not to be writing. Yet it's one of the most important things in my life.
What I like writing about are people's relationships, not necessarily great big dramatic things but the smaller things in life and how they affect characters and challenge and change the people that they are. I do like a happy ending, so my books have to have a happy ending.
Writing a book is very personal. It's a very personal relationship. A book will start with something as simple as two men talking about work. That gets the fire going. Sustaining that fire is the hard work. It takes attention and empathy to hone the characters.
Every well-written book is a light for me. When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.
I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.
The point really is that a writer tends to write a book that he or she tends to write. It's as simple as that. Of course, it's important to make a living and all that, but the main impulse as far as I'm concerned - and I'm sure as other writers are concerned - is to tell a story that I feel impelled by.
I'd always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.
Writing is incidental to my primary objective, which is spinning a good yarn. I view myself as a storyteller more than a writer. The story - and hence the extensive research that goes into each one of my books - is much more important than the words that I use to narrate it.