Say what you mean. Say what you see. Make a photograph, if you can, for the reader.

Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don't.

I started after him...and the clown looked back. I saw Its eyes, and all at once I understood who It was." "Who was it, Don?" Harold Gardner asked softly. "It was Derry," Don Hagarty said. "It was this town.

Although emotionally delicate and eminently bruisable, teenagers are short on empathy. That comes later in life, if it comes at all.

Might as well try to drink the ocean with a spoon as argue with a lover.

The important question has nothing to do with whether the talk in your story is sacred or profane; the only question is how it rings on the page and in your ear. If you expect it to ring true, then you must talk yourself. Even more important, you must shut up and listen to others talk.

Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters.