Writers Write Is All About Writing
Writers Write Is All About Writing
Andrew Lane

Literary Birthday – 17 April – Andrew Lane

Happy Birthday, Andrew Lane, born on 17 April 1963.

Andrew Lane Quotes

  1. I like to start off with a strong visual image, and daydreams are very good for that. I get lots of good ideas when I’m driving, because my subconscious can just wander. I used to get a lot of good ideas when I was swimming lengths, but I don’t do that any more. Perhaps I should… (EA)
  2. The ‘smart’ answer is that characters should come first, and then the plot and situation come afterwards. In reality, that’s not always the case. I find that plot and character tend to develop hand-in-hand, but situations come first. (EA)
  3. I like to have three or four good key situations for a book plot, and then I use character and plot to weave them together. (EA)
  4. My advice for anyone with writer’s block is to just write anything. Anything at all. Don’t try to make it good; write stuff that you know is wrong. The key thing is to exercise that mental muscle – warm it up ready for the real writing. (EA)
  5. Read some stuff that’s bad, as well as good. People will often tell you that particular writers are great, and you should read them, but there’s nothing like reading a really badly written book to make you think: ‘I can do better than that!’ and to show you what mistakes to avoid. (EA)
  6. [I use the computer] all the time. even plotting. It’s been so long since I hand-wrote anything that it would look like Chinese writing. (EA)
  7. What I do do is to make sure that the plots of my books are straightforward, with no sub-plots and no distractions, and to make sure that the motivations of the characters are very clear. That’s not an ‘adult fiction’ versus ‘kids’ fiction’ thing – it’s because I want to write books that move fast and aren’t cluttered. (EA)

Andrew Lane is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of more than 40 books. He is best known for writing the Young Sherlock Holmes series of Young Adult novels, starting with Death Cloud. The series was developed in conjunction with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and it is the inspiration for the new Guy Ritchie series Young Sherlock. He also wrote The Lost World books that follow disabled 15-year-old Calum Challenger, the Crusoe-Dawn Of Spies series, Secret Protector series, and the Sherlock & You series. He also publishes books as Andy Lane. Follow him on Facebook.

Source for image: Andrew Lane, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andy_Lane.jpg


by Amanda Patterson

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Posted on: 3rd April 2026
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