10 Tess Gerritsen Quotes for Writers and About Writing

Here are 10 Tess Gerritsen quotes for writers and about writing from the author of The Surgeon, Vanish, and The Shape of Night. In these quotes, Gerritsen covers writing, ideas, books, and more.

Tess Gerritsen is a bestselling author of romantic and medical thrillers, as well as a retired physician. A few of her titles include The Surgeon, Vanish, and The Shape of Night. She has received a RITA Award for Best Romantic Suspense Novel and a Nero Award for Best Mystery Novel.

(How to craft a crime novel and ways to kill a character.)

Like many other bestselling authors, Gerritsen brings discipline to her job as a writer: "I try to get to my desk by nine in the morning. I write my first drafts in pen on paper and the second drafts are all on computer. I try to do four new pages a day."

Here are 10 Tess Gerritsen quotes for writers and about writing from the February 2008 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.

"A bad title can kill a book."

(How to write better titles.)

"I don't plot my books ahead of time."

"I wanted to be a writer since I was seven and my dad said, 'You'll never make money at it.'"

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"If a situation doesn't scare me, I figure it won't scare my reader, either. I always try for the thing that's going to frighten me."

"I'm an avid reader of newspapers and magazines, not just because I'm looking for ideas, but because I always find something interesting."

"The best way of predicting a book's success is how much money the publisher pays for it."

"What makes a really salable book that people grab onto is one that tells a story that causes you to feel something.'"

(8 Reasons Books Fail.)

"Writing is a matter of trusting your heart and gut more than logic, because people aren't logical. Characters should do crazy things because that's real life and I think that's what we should write about."

"You can't be a multi-published novelist without being ready to sit in your seat and do your job."

"You never know where ideas are going to come from."