"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"
About this Quote
The line sells a familiar fantasy about fantasy: the novelist as medium, not engineer. Salvatore isn’t just describing a workflow; he’s protecting a particular kind of authorship that his readers want to believe in. “They write themselves” frames craft as discovery, not construction, which flatters the audience’s investment in characters as real presences rather than assembled effects. It’s also a savvy move for a writer working in shared worlds and long-running series: if the characters “take over,” then continuity, momentum, even formula can be recast as inevitability instead of repetition.
The shoulder image does double duty. It borrows the angel-devil trope but swaps moral counsel for narrative compulsion, suggesting a benign haunting. That’s romantic, but it’s also pragmatic. When a franchise has expectations (heroic arcs, recognizable voices, reliable beats), “they’re talking to me” becomes a way to claim authenticity inside constraints. The subtext: I’m not pandering; I’m listening.
Context matters, too. Salvatore’s career is built on beloved figures with fierce fan attachment. Saying the characters “have come alive” acknowledges the feedback loop between writer and readership without admitting the marketplace openly. The “amazing experience” is promotional, yes, but not empty: it validates why readers return. If the characters are alive for him, they can be alive for you, and the series isn’t just continuing; it’s being reported, like dispatches from a place that keeps existing when you close the book.
The shoulder image does double duty. It borrows the angel-devil trope but swaps moral counsel for narrative compulsion, suggesting a benign haunting. That’s romantic, but it’s also pragmatic. When a franchise has expectations (heroic arcs, recognizable voices, reliable beats), “they’re talking to me” becomes a way to claim authenticity inside constraints. The subtext: I’m not pandering; I’m listening.
Context matters, too. Salvatore’s career is built on beloved figures with fierce fan attachment. Saying the characters “have come alive” acknowledges the feedback loop between writer and readership without admitting the marketplace openly. The “amazing experience” is promotional, yes, but not empty: it validates why readers return. If the characters are alive for him, they can be alive for you, and the series isn’t just continuing; it’s being reported, like dispatches from a place that keeps existing when you close the book.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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