I loved to read and to write, but then something happened. As I made my way through school, I kept getting handed books to read that didn't excite me and didn't even remotely connect to the realities of my life.
There's way too much pain in this business for anyone who doesn't HAVE to write.
Definitely they write themselves. It's an amazing experience. It's like the characters have come alive and are sitting on my shoulder talking to me, telling me their tales.
The most common criticism that I've seen is that I write "popcorn fantasy": lightweight action-adventure. Some people call it that as they explain why they love it for exactly that reason. I'm cool with that, either way. I just nod and let it go.
It got so bad that by the time I was graduated, the only reading I did was in order to get the grade and the only writing I did was in order to get the grade.
Writing a book for me, I expect, is very similar to the experience of reading the book for my readers.
Whenever you're writing a book or creating a movie or a game, your first task is to get the reader to suspend disbelief, to buy into the logic and boundaries of your world, even though those boundaries might include things like dragons and magic.
No one will ever write a fantasy novel better than The Hobbit.
Writing is an incredibly lonely job.
If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, you're a writer.