Literary Birthday – 14 December – Grady Hendrix

Happy Birthday, Grady Hendrix born 14 December 1972.

Grady Hendrix Quotes

1. All my characters need to have something that distances them from me so that I see them as a fully rounded three dimensional person rather than myself in a fiction suit. (Grimdark Magazine)
2. My writing process could be defined as: mess. I start with tons of research, fill a couple of notebooks, develop a firm, 100% rock solid idea of what’s going to happen and it usually takes me a full draft before I toss all my notes and realize my research is useless. Then I sit down, write backstories for every single character, write chapters about their lives I never use, and slowly weave my way towards something resembling a book the way a drunk walks a line during a field sobriety test. Then I rewrite and rewrite until my editor threatens me with physical violence, then I keep rewriting while they send the last draft off to the copy editor and block my email at which point I burst into tears. (Grimdark Magazine)
3. I’m a pretty inefficient writer, so there were two completely different versions of this book with radically different characters and endings before I arrived at the version people will read. So there are tons of characters, a bunch of worldbuilding, and a whole lot of set pieces that will never see the light of day. (Los Angeles Public Library)
4. I don’t think the books I write are funny. I mean, I get that people think they are, but I take them deadly serious when I write them. (Bloodstream City)
5. I like to write about the world I see around me, and that’s a world full of people who are different genders, sexual identities, and ethnicities than mine. (Southern Review of Books)
6. For me, the best writing advice I ever read was Elmore Leonard’s “Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.” That’s it. No need to be fancy, no need to get cute. Something is said, or something is asked. Readers don’t notice those words when they read and they keep the dialogue moving and if you use anything different you’d better have a really good reason. This one rule taught me to stop being so clever, keep it simple, get the hell out of my own way (and the reader’s), and just tell a story. (Crime Reads)
7. My first two books — Occupy Space and Satan Loves You — were both self-published and I had a blast writing them. The only way to learn how to write books is to write books, so anything that gives you a chance to do that is not to be sneezed at. (MiS Magazine)

Grady Hendrix is an American author, journalist, public speaker, and screenwriter. He writes in the Grimdark genre. He is perhaps best known for his bestselling 2014 horror novel Horrorstör. His novels My Best Friend’s Exorcism and Horrorstör have been optioned for film adaptations. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and The Final Girl Support Group are slated for television adaptations. His latest novel is Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Visit his website. Follow him on Instagram.

Source for image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grady_Hendrix_at_2023_National_Book_Festival_(53123264409)_(cropped).jpg
Library of Congress Life, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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