Fiction writers come up with some interesting metaphors when speaking of plot. Some say the plot is the highway and the characters are the automobiles. Others talk about stories that are "plot-driven," as if the plot were neither the highway nor the automobile, but the chauffeur. Others seem to have plot phobia and say they never plot. Still others turn up their noses at the very notion, as if there's something artificial, fraudulent, contrived.

It is possible to combine a story line and plot line in the same work. Usually the storylines comes first, serving as a background to the plot line, but not always.

For some it is harder to write a novel than to row a bathtub across the North Atlantic.

The opposing missions of the various characters create the plot.

Novel writing is like heroin addiction; it takes everything you've got.

To set a forest on fire, you light a match. To set a character on fire, you put him in conflict.

You will never work through writer's block if you walk away from your typewriter. That will only make it easier to walk away the next time.