Use plot to buttress a story. Gayle Lynds More Quotes by Gayle Lynds More Quotes From Gayle Lynds Ignorance is bliss, or so we're told. Personally, I find ignorance is also destiny. Gayle Lynds find bliss destiny ignorance You don't want to become guilty of plagiarism by letting someone else's words get inadvertently mixed in with your own. If you do feel the need to paste in a block of research while you're writing, be sure to highlight the copied text in a different color so you can go back and remove or rewrite it entirely later. Gayle Lynds words feel you research 'Mosaic' is about what we see and what we don't see. I learned how people can develop other senses to compensate for a missing one when I was a child. My best friend, Carol, who is profoundly deaf, saved me from an approaching car that she 'heard' when I didn't. Gayle Lynds best me car people For a decade, I was a stay-at-home mom. I sent my husband to his law office, sat on PTA boards and baked cookies - great cookies. All of a sudden, I had no husband, no job, few prospects, and two small children who had grown accustomed to eating. Gayle Lynds great mom eating children Pulp paperbacks have always provided a training ground for men, Some of them went on to become respected authors - Dean Koontz, Nelson DeMille and Martin Cruz Smith, for example. Why couldn't a woman? Gayle Lynds woman always training men Writers sometimes ruin a book by adding a lighthearted mood at the wrong moment. Gayle Lynds moment mood sometimes book You don't have to resolve every problem of the book at the end, but you do have to resolve some. Gayle Lynds end you problem book Get in the habit of vetting your research as you go - particularly research conducted online. Verify facts from multiple reputable sources before you record them. Gayle Lynds go you research facts Be wary of cutting and pasting research nuggets directly into your manuscript. Gayle Lynds wary your cutting research I've always looked upon research as an opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. But the other side of the coin is one must not be so caught up in it that one never gets the book written. Gayle Lynds curiosity research opportunity book In 1996, when my first novel, 'Masquerade,' was published, I knew international thrillers - or spy novels, if you prefer - had been the domain of male authors for decades. Gayle Lynds first you spy novel Our only solace as writers is in the work itself, and perhaps also in a penchant for blissful ignorance that allows us to gamble, to risk, to keep going where others would tote up the odds and stop. Gayle Lynds stop keep-going ignorance work Sometimes you get what you want not because it's right or fair or even smart, but because you just don't know any better. Gayle Lynds better you smart sometimes If you're not in the hands of an expert editor, you really can go wrong in a lot of different ways. Gayle Lynds wrong go you hands If you are writing a thriller with violence in it, the ending must be violent. You are delivering a promise to your reader. Gayle Lynds ending you violence writing Do you love this story? If you love it, then you've got to write it. Gayle Lynds write story you love The villain drives the plot. Gayle Lynds drives villain plot I've seen unpublished manuscripts where the writer doesn't know they are making fun of the villain - but they are. If you aren't afraid of your villain, how can your hero be afraid? Gayle Lynds you villain hero fun Look realistically at espionage thrillers again. They're not only alive, readers are excited about them. Gayle Lynds only look excited alive I've always loved spy stories. Who can resist? Gayle Lynds loved who always spy