Literary Birthday – 10 May – John Scalzi

Happy Birthday, John Scalzi, born on 10 May 1969.

John Scalzi Quotes

1. When I decided to start writing novels, I wanted to write in a genre I already knew and loved as a reader. So, it was either going to be science fiction or mystery. I decided to flip a coin. Heads was science fiction. Tails was mystery. The coin came up heads. (Dayton Daily News)
2. Engrave this in your brain: EVERY WRITER GETS REJECTED. You will be no different. (A-Z)
3. Ultimately the first, best step in getting your work noticed is to write good work. If people don’t engage in your writing, no amount of serialization or free downloads is going to matter. You have to write something worth reading, and often it takes time to get at that level. (Writer’s Digest)
4. A novel is not like life (there are hopefully fewer boring parts to a novel), but it’s a model of it, and so putting humor into the mix as part of the events that fuel the plot is a good way to make the reader feel the story has a natural flow. (Writer’s Digest)
5. Never anger a sci-fi writer. These people destroy entire planets over lunch. Imagine what they’ll do to you. (A-Z)
6. It basically boils down to ‘don’t be boring‘. As a reader I have a very short attention span and a low tolerance for boredom, and I find that comes in handy with my writing. If I get bored writing something, I pity the people who will then try to read it. (Writer’s Digest)
7. The more I want a book to be done, the faster I type because I just want to get it out. (A-Z)
8. The first and most important thing is: Ass in chair, doing the work. For fiction, I fly by the seat of my pants. For non-fiction, I outline and make sure I know where I’m going. For columns, I pick the thing that’s on my mind for the day, see if there’s a through-line for how I feel about it, and write that through-line. (American Writer’s Museum)
9. When I’m writing a novel or doing other serious writing work, I do it on a schedule that dictates writing either 2,000 words a day or writing until noon. (Writer’s Digest)
10. A lot of the times when I’m writing I don’t know what I’m going to write next, so it’s fun for me to discover what happens in the story. Basically, I get to be the first reader in that respect. I get to find out what comes out of my own brain. (Clarkes World)

John Scalzi is an American author. He is one of the most popular and acclaimed science fiction authors of his generation. Scalzi’s books are known for their humour. His debut, Old Man’s War, won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, Redshirts (which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel), The Last Emperox, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, and The Shattering Peace. His novels The Collapsing Empire and The Kaiju Preservation Society have both won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Scalzi was first elected president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2010. Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, and Joe Haldeman have influenced his writing style. In 2024, Tor Books announced that they signed a deal for 10 more books by Scalzi. Follow him on Instagram and Bluesky.

Source for image: Macmillan South Africa

by Amanda Patterson

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