MindProbe

“Nisbet was disengaged, and arrived about 9.30. His host was not quite dressed, I am sorry to say, even at this late hour. During breakfast nothing was said about the mezzotint by Williams, save that he had a picture on which he wished for Nisbet’s opinion. But those who are familiar with University life can picture for themselves the wide and delightful range of subjects over which the conversation of two Fellows of Canterbury College is likely to extend during a Sunday morning breakfast. Hardly a topic was left unchallenged, from golf to lawn-tennis.”
― M.R. James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

“The world is there for you to listen to, observe, and take in. You have to train your brain to not only listen to the conversations in your life, but to recognize how those conversations sound. You need to listen to the music of the world all around you.
Most importantly, you need to dig through it all and pull out the good stuff. Go to the mall. The park. Go where people are and … listen. Take it all in. And spit out ONLY the good stuff back onto your pages.
Because not everything in the world is a story worth repeating.
The magic comes from finding the stuff that is interesting. The magic comes from discovering that “realistic dialogue” isn’t actually that realistic. Most real-world dialogue is quite annoying. Some people don’t know that their stories aren’t all that interesting to others. Some people don’t know when they have gone on too long.
“You had to be there.” You ever hear someone say that after they told a story that didn’t “land” quite the way the storyteller may have hoped? That is someone who didn’t quite know how to tell a story.
That’s why readers turn to you, the writer. They want you to tell them a story. They want a story far better crafted than the ones surrounding them in real life. People would rather tune out the “realistic dialogue” and listen to yours.”
― Brian Michael Bendis

“Basically, both the characters and the plot have their individual arcs and are specifically intertwined. Think of the plot as an automobile and the character as the passenger. The plot drives the character through his arc so that he goes through various experiences in his journey and winds up a different person when he turns off the car and steps out than he was when he first climbed behind the wheel.
Pacing is the speed with which the car makes the journey. It's knowing when to hit the gas, when to ease up, when to slam on the brakes and then how fast to accelerate once more.”
― Peter David, Writing for Comics and Graphic Novels with Peter David

“I didn't like the tone Topaz spun around her voice -- like a cocoon trying to hide something ugly inside. But it didn't work; I could smell what was coming... I didn't like the scent of it, either.”
― Doug Moench, Werewolf By Night #32