"I think I write to a concept more than to plot points. So I try to figure out who my characters are and what they're going to learn about themselves by the end of the story.”

— Kelly Jamieson

"Instead of just telling people about the past, I like to show it to them.”

— Aleatha Romig

"If I had to say that there was one thing that defines my writing, it would be that my heroines are really strong characters.”

— Sawyer Bennett

"It took a little convincing—and maybe some bribing—but he finally came over to the dark side”

Erica Russikoff — She Said, He Said

"I want to do a long view of what different situations look like to different characters.

I write a lot of stuff that’s just one character’s perspective, but I always still go through the process of looking at how everybody else in the book sees that experience and sees that character.”

— Bryn Greenwood

"This guy just walked into my head. I had to write it. I was like, "Oh, my God"—I was obsessed. But I wasn't going to publish it, I just wanted to get it out.”

— Ella Fields

"...Sometimes if I get stuck writing a character, I will sort of get inside their head and write some poetry from their point of view, and it just helps me, you know, define who they are and what they want...”

— Lisa Rayven

"Once you get to know your characters, they like to take the story in a different direction sometimes...I find that fighting my characters is an effort in futility.”

— Penny Reid

"We’re not very good plotters. We basically know maybe one page of stuff when we start. We’ll know maybe what the twist is, what we’re building towards, and kind of who the characters are … then we just basically start writing.”

— Vi Keeland

"Over the course of writing this book I ended up finding a therapist and saying things out loud that I had never said in my entire life...just so I could write this book! So I have to tell you, the amount of relief that I have written it, and it is done, is incredible.”

— Skye Warren

"If my brain is starting to hurt with writer’s block, then it’s time to just find something to distract me—because I always find that if I am distracted, that’s when I’m hit with inspiration.”

— Samantha Young

"It probably sounds backwards, but I'm trying to emotionally detach and make it not so serious...They're not necessarily life-changing books, but for me, when I'm writing them, they are coming from a place that was life-changing in my heart.”

— J. Sterling

"Since we started writing together, it's just been such a relief to share in not only the good times that you experience, but also the struggles—because they're there, too. So, it is hard for me to picture writing without her, at this point, for sure.”

— Max Monroe

"There are those people that can sit down and write every day and they write consistently amazing books and they're built to write. But I'm not that person—so it’s good to have found what works for me.”

— Kim Holden

"I feel like this just slipped somewhere into my unconscious, and it's taken a decade—or fifteen years now, at this point—to come out.”

— Julia Whelan

"It felt like me embracing myself, and it felt really healthy. I loved doing that.”

— Helen Hoang

"If you would have asked me last March when I hit ‘publish’ on that first book if I would have the relationships with readers and fellow authors and bloggers that I have today, I would have said ‘You’re crazy.’ It’s wonderful…and it makes it all so much more worthwhile—and so fun.”

— Devney Perry

"I thought this would be any interesting way to explore that feeling without it just being me talking about being sad all the time. It would be a slightly more fun way of exploring a very dark topic.”

— Isaac Marion

"My big dream was 'I want to be an actor,' and the secret dream was 'I want to write!'”

— Cat Porter

"I walk to the train every day and I see different people, and I make assumptions about them in my head. I say 'Oh, they would make a good character...'”

— Christine Brae