Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible. - Don Roff
I've found that busting your ass on a daily basis to make your art good, clear, and meaningful creates the most luck. - Don Roff
I don't use big words to show off because it's ostentatious. - Don Roff
The recipe for great art has always been misery and a good bowel movement. - Don Roff
Writing a story, regardless of length, begins always with a single word. - Don Roff
You can be a writer who doesn't read everyday. But you're not fooling anyone. It shows, rather embarrassingly, in your work. - Don Roff
A writer always writes. - Don Roff
Keep being bold on the page, and in life, and people cannot ignore you forever. - Don Roff
Authors must spend months, years making fantasy believable in a single work while reality runs rampant and complete chaos elsewhere. - Don Roff
There is no right or wrong way to write a novel. Each journey is different for every individual work and for every writer. The first error is never to begin; the second is never to finish. - Don Roff
Nothing's a better cure for writer's block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton. - Don Roff
When you print out your manuscript and read it, marking up with a pen, it sometimes feels like a criminal returning to the scene of a crime. - Don Roff
I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it. - Don Roff
Nothing says work efficiency like panic mode. - Don Roff
Even if you're in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It's important to keep telling yourself stories. - Don Roff
Regarding the creative: never assume you're the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you're masterful. - Don Roff
Write for impact first, money second. If you do it the other way around, you’ll end up with less of either. - Don Roff
Write about the thing that scares you most or your most private confession and you'll never have a problem coming up with decent fiction. - Don Roff
If you treat your characters like people, they'll reward you by being fully developed individuals. - Don Roff
It's my belief that people enter your life at exactly the right time. - Don Roff
If you focus on the humanity of your stories, your characters, then the horror will be stronger, scarier. Without the humanity, the horror becomes nothing more than a tawdry parlor trick. All flash and no magic, and worst of all, no heart. - Don Roff
The best writers I've read possess oodles of self-doubt, yet claw their way up with each work and remain humble. Boastful ones, not so much. - Don Roff
Love it when a compelling new character kicks open your mental door, tracks mud across your brain, and props their feet up on your cerebrum. - Don Roff
Don't think about the writing process too much. Just do one thing: tell the motherfucking story. - Don Roff
Kindness, motherfucker, kindness. - Don Roff
If you schlep a shit job everyday, keep and feed a little secret life--whether it's writing, art, running, music, your thoughts. It's yours. - Don Roff
Fear and self-doubt are the deadly enemies of creativity. Don’t invite either into your mind. - Don Roff
We often wait for that knock of opportunity, though I've found it's better to just grab a chainsaw and cut open your own fucking door. - Don Roff
I write every day whether somebody pays me or not. I write every day whether or not self-doubt is kicking my ass. It's what writers must do. - Don Roff
Yeah, episodic doesn't work. Your coolest character needs something big and meaningful to do. Otherwise, well, it's just narrative shit. - Don Roff
A migraine is the cockblock of writing. - Don Roff
Always work with/surround yourself with people who help make you a better version of you. Kindly avoid those who don't. - Don Roff
When writing, I uncage KAT: Keep Adding Tension. Even if I don't know where the story's going, petting the KAT keeps it purring. - Don Roff
Writers often torture themselves trying to get the words right. Sometimes you must lower your expectations and just finish it. - Don Roff
You cannot write your character until you know how he or she thinks, until you know what their philosophy is in the world that they occupy. - Don Roff
I write fiction. It may have mystery, it may have horror, it may have fantasy, it may have love, but like life, it's all the same genre. - Don Roff
When you're writing what you love, it's the most fun you can have with your clothing still on, unless of course, you write naked. - Don Roff