Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" 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

Related Quotes:

" I investigate more directly. I tend to ask a lot of questions and don't feel satisfied until I have the answer. "

" 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. "

" '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. "

" 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. "

" I'm not a huge fan of research, but sometimes you get an idea, and then you realize you don't know anything. "

" I wrote the first draft of 'Plan B' the summer after I turned 21. "

" Humor is the only way to tell a story. Especially the dark ones. "

" 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

" I learned how to cross-country ski. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Maggie is my sister-in-law, married to my brother David. She is a defense attorney who devotes 25 percent of her practice to pro bono wrongful-incarceration cases. "

" I was young, maybe 4, when I learned where babies came from. "

" When I was 6, I learned where I came from, which was one step removed from the usual circumstances. I was adopted. "

" I loved writing the Spellman novels, but I never had any plan to only write in one genre. "

" I tend to start books with a very broad outline, but I always leave room for happy accidents. With 'The Passenger,' there were perhaps too many of those. "

" 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. "

" I have a love/hate relationship with jogging. "

Lisa Lutz

Relationship

Jogging

" If I were one of the three viable presidential candidates, I doubt I'd be too broken up about someone looking into my passport file. Go ahead look, I'd say. It's the passport photo I wouldn't want anyone getting his hands on. "

" I have certain rules for snooping, under which anything out in the open is fair game. "

" I've got no business giving advice to anyone. Even a fictional character. "

" Finally, I'm recognizing that rewrites aren't some cosmic punishment for childhood wrongs but the nature of the business. "

" I was never obsessed with being adopted. I was simply curious about my biological parents. "

" Hair color is the easiest way to change your appearance, but a bad dye job might draw more attention to you. "

" I worked for a private investigative agency briefly. I rarely had the opportunity to snoop. "

" To properly investigate a subject, we must investigate a subject's stuff. "

" The sense of not knowing where I came from let me be as smart as I wanted to be. "

Lisa Lutz

Sense

Smart

" I am a huge Mel Brooks fan. And I do think that not seeing his canon of classics is a bit criminal or clueless. "

" You can't be suspicious 24/7. It's too exhausting. "

" Band I listen to most: The Ramones. "