Dan Alatorre Quotes

I usually end have one outrageous minor character. He or she says the stuff I wish I had said in real life. Readers will love that character.

Dig deep and go where the pain and fear and joy are, and put it out there. The minute you shy away from pure honesty in your writing, you become a liar.

People are suckers for the truth and they know it when they see it. Open your soul and they will stop and watch.

Writers get ideas all day every day. The FedEx guy delivers a package from Sears and the writer is thinking how it could actually be a ticking time bomb.

Don’t polish it forever, put it out there. At some point the changes aren’t improvements, they’re just changes.

What I can tell you is DO IT. Publish book one and get book two out as soon as possible. There are very few Harper Lee’s. Most of us are going to have to write a few books to get good at it.

The more time you can put between you and your manuscript, the more fresh your eyes become and the more mistakes you’ll catch.

Not knowing stuff - like how your story ends before you start writing - is the seed of a lot of writer’s block.

Don't have every dialog go in a straight line to solve the problem. Let your characters argue, be sarcastic, disagree or joke around.

Writers need to be open to trying new things. My first bestseller was a cookbook, and from that experience I learned things about marketing a book that benefitted me greatly.

Believe in yourself and start achieving your dream. It waits for you on the other side of the publish button.

It’s amazing how my mind opens up right when I have to run on the treadmill. I’ve finished three chapters rather than run a mile.

I wasn’t a class clown, because nuns have no sense of humor. They have rulers.

Who do I think would appreciate my book?I’m surprised anybody does. Oops, did I say that out loud?

The best part of being a writer is you get to tell people you’re a writer. That’s still considered cool.

Open your soul and put it out there and dare the world to read it, ready to have them stomp on you and laugh, but ready to do it again the next day.

Kids are flat-out freaking hilarious if you are paying attention. Not just my kid, but every kid.

You have to put yourself out there as a writer, you can’t play it safe.

Honesty makes stories real and characters memorable. From there, taking them to where they need to go will be all the development they need.