“When I was a young teenager, I had a childhood friend, called Eileen Barnetston, who wrote fan fiction — although she didn’t know what that was at the time as it hadn’t been invented yet.

Eileen was a fangirl extraordinaire. And a very good one too. What she wasn’t was a writer.

So I’m saying you can’t learn how to write by copying other writers?

Hell, no. That is how you learn it. Well, at least how you learn to do it well. What you can’t learn is a burning need to say something. Nobody teaches you that. Absolutely no-one. Ever. No discussion.”

– Stone, Chancery. How To Write The Perfect Novel: A tongue-in-cheek guide to certain literary success, pg 116-117.

(For my thoughts on the book itself, see my review on Goodreads.)