"The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying."

Writing, Draft, First, Fun, Research

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"The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying."

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Explore more quotes by Ken Follett

"There was a very serious communist strain among American intellectuals before the war. America was a more tolerant place in those days, and Communists were not treated as pariahs. That ended with the McCarthy era."

War

"The CIA's research program is described in a book called The Search for the Manchurian Candidate."

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"Movies have influenced all writers, not just thriller writers."

Movies

"Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative."

Woman

"I enjoy learning technical details."

Learning

"James Bond is quite serious about his drinks and clothing and cigarettes and food and all that sort of thing. There is nothing wry or amused about James Bond."

Food

"An awful lot of thriller writers write women rather badly. So just doing it OK gets a lot of credit."

Woman

"The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the 20th century."

Writing

"For success, the author must make the reader care about the destiny of the principals, and sustain this anxiety, or suspense, for about 100,000 words."

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"I use a professional researcher in New York who does all the legwork, all that stuff which would take me days and weeks of calling, waiting for people to call back."

People