Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.
Tom ClancyRead
Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Novels begin by exploring hypothetical scenarios and their consequences.
Tom Clancy emphasizes that the essence of storytelling in novels lies in posing speculative questions like 'What if?' and 'What next?'. This foundational approach encourages writers to think creatively and explore the potential outcomes of their stories, highlighting the iterative process of building a narrative that evolves from these initial inquiries.
Themes
NovelsStorytellingQuestionsCreativityWriting
In practice
Example use cases
An author could use this quote during a writing workshop to inspire creativity.
More from Tom Clancy
All quotes →Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.
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The only real difference between a wise man and a fool, Moore knew, was that the wise man tended to make more serious mistakes—and only because no one trusted a fool with really crucial decisions; only the wise had the opportunity to lose battles, or nations.
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One thing about flying that he never got used to was that no matter how awful the weather was on the ground, if you flew high enough you could always find the sun.
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Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Your life may change, but your dream doesn't have to. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it.
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I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
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