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" I wrote the first draft of 'Plan B' the summer after I turned 21. "
Lisa Lutz
Plan
Turned
Draft
Related Quotes:
" I investigate more directly. I tend to ask a lot of questions and don't feel satisfied until I have the answer. "
Lisa Lutz
Questions
Satisfied
Feel
" Sometimes a single item can wrap up, in a nutshell, who a person is. In my grandparents' home, a clear plastic container was enthroned on top of the mahogany bar for at least a decade. Painted on the lid in pink, yellow and light blue was 'Have a Nosh With Mort & Ethel'. "
Lisa Lutz
Light
Home
Blue
" While I had no intention of ending the series after 'The Spellmans Strike Again,' I did close many doors in that book and, with the fifth one, I was opening a lot of doors and not finding anything behind them and then opening another door and another until I found something. It was a while before I found my stride. "
Lisa Lutz
Door
Ending
Finding
" When I was 6, I learned where I came from, which was one step removed from the usual circumstances. I was adopted. "
Lisa Lutz
Learned
Step
Where
" My mother, at sixty, is one of those classic beauties: all neck and cheekbones, sharp lines that hide her wrinkles from a distance. She still gets whistles from construction workers from three stories up. "
Lisa Lutz
Distance
Construction
Wrinkles
" I've always adored the filmmaker Sam Fuller. The first time I watched 'Shock Corridor' was such a magnificent discovery. I love his lack of subtlety, the way he tackles serious topics with bold and inappropriate humor. "
Lisa Lutz
Bold
Time
Serious
" Although I'm not an orphan and I can't lift a horse. I was, however, briefly famous for my feats of strength: at about age 11, I could competitively arm-wrestle a full-grown man. "
Lisa Lutz
Horse
Strength
Man
" I'm always accused of being a crime novelist, but I'm not really. "
Lisa Lutz
Always
Really
Crime
" The sense of not knowing where I came from let me be as smart as I wanted to be. "
Lisa Lutz
Sense
Smart
Me
" I love 'The Wire'. I can't think of a television show that I think is superior to it in any way. I was obsessed with it from the moment it came on the air. I do also love 'Doctor Who' and 'Get Smart'. "
Lisa Lutz
Think
Love
Moment
" I usually have a sense of where my characters are personally and ways in which they might transform throughout the novel. But I never know at the outset how the book will end, nor do I ever stick to my original plan. "
Lisa Lutz
Know
Plan
Book
" I have certain rules for snooping, under which anything out in the open is fair game. "
Lisa Lutz
Fair
Rules
Game
" My writing process is chaos. I usually start with an overarching theme. Then I establish several story threads, but I don't outline. I just start writing and keep notes for what may come. It's an organic process that's usually pretty flexible. "
Lisa Lutz
Chaos
Start
Story
" People transform in some ways, and they remain exactly the same in others. Often, the thing you'd like to change the most about yourself is where you will forever remain stuck. "
Lisa Lutz
Others
Yourself
You
" I'm not a huge fan of research, but sometimes you get an idea, and then you realize you don't know anything. "
Lisa Lutz
You
Research
Sometimes
" 'Await Your Reply' by Dan Chaon. I've always been obsessed with the idea of disappearing and becoming someone else. Even if you don't share that obsession, I can't recommend this book highly enough. "
Lisa Lutz
Your
Enough
Someone
" I'd like to think that if I were in prison for a crime I didn't commit, someone would be trying to get me the hell out of there. "
Lisa Lutz
Think
Prison
Me
" If you're trying to hide, avoid using your own name. Have a couple spares that you can pull out of your pocket anytime, the more thoroughly documented the better. "
Lisa Lutz
Hide
Better
You
" Hair color is the easiest way to change your appearance, but a bad dye job might draw more attention to you. "
Lisa Lutz
Appearance
Hair
Job
" To properly investigate a subject, we must investigate a subject's stuff. "
Lisa Lutz
Must
Investigate
Stuff
" I wrote my first screenplay on a lark, because it was a storytelling format that felt like a familiar shorthand - we all watch movies, don't we? But even though I grew up in Los Angeles, my family was entirely unconnected with the movie industry, and I never truly believed that it would one day be my fate. "
Lisa Lutz
Los Angeles
Day
Family
" I could never really choose a favorite book, but whenever I'm asked what my favorite movie is, I always say 'Withnail & I,' a British film from 1987. It's funny and sad and absolutely gorgeous to look at. It's the film I can watch over and over again. "
Lisa Lutz
Look
Sad
Say
" You can't be suspicious 24/7. It's too exhausting. "
Lisa Lutz
Too
You
Suspicious
" Finally, I'm recognizing that rewrites aren't some cosmic punishment for childhood wrongs but the nature of the business. "
Lisa Lutz
Childhood
Punishment
Nature
" I was young, maybe 4, when I learned where babies came from. "
Lisa Lutz
Where
Learned
Babies
" There's no reason why a writer shouldn't explore and use different genres. "
Lisa Lutz
Reason
Writer
Explore
" Six years after I wrote the first draft of 'Plan B,' I received my first paycheck as a writer. It included both the $3,000 in deferred option money as well as half the fee for performing the initial rewrite. The amount was scale according to the Writer's Guild guidelines, but a lot, according to me. "
Lisa Lutz
Money
Years
Draft
" We're all amateur investigators. We scan bookshelves, we ogle trinkets left out in the open, we calculate the cost of furniture and study the photographs on display; sometimes we even check out the medicine cabinet. "
Lisa Lutz
Furniture
Study
Medicine
" 'The Chosen,' if you recall, was based on the Chaim Potok novel and featured Robbie Benson's persuasive performance as a Hasidic Jew. "
Lisa Lutz
You
Performance
Chosen
" Years ago, when my attempts at a writing career came to a complete stand-still, I applied to the Los Angeles Police Department. This might seem odd for a liberal woman who once went to UC Santa Cruz, but I've always had a powerful fascination with crime and serious interest in finding different ways to contend with it. "
Lisa Lutz
Writing
Powerful
Police