Do writers have to be readers? Reading is fast becoming a lost art. In our digital age of television and Internet, even the leisurely reading of the morning paper is going out of habit with most people. Sometimes, when I happen to be in a particularly cynical frame of mind, I can’t help thinking the […]
April 26, 2009 by 32 Comments Writing LifeThe Value of Stories That Fail
Good writers aren’t born. Okay, well, actually, they are born, since it would be physically impossible to write without being born… but they’re aren’t born good. At least, I’ve yet to meet a four-year-old wunderkind who’s running around writing Pulitzer Prize-winning epics. I know I sure wasn’t. Instead, good writers are made. Skill isn’t a […]
April 19, 2009 by 24 Comments Writing LifeLearn How to Project (and Find) Yourself in Your Writing
Have you ever found yourself looking up from the pages of a book and wondering how much the words you’re reading are a reflection of the author’s own personality and life? We’re all familiar with famous examples of autobiographical fiction (such as Dickens’s David Copperfield) in which it’s easy to draw parallels between the make-believe […]
February 4, 2009 by 42 Comments Writing LifeNot Sure Why You’re Writing Fiction? 4 Indisputable Reasons
Do you know why you’re writing fiction? It’s a bit of a mystery. And yet it’s no mystery at all. “I write because I must” is the easy answer—the cop-out. When someone asks me why I write, the answer that immediately pops onto my tongue is a simple “because I love it.” But that, of […]
December 13, 2008 by 31 Comments Writing LifeWriting Buddies: Why You Need Them, How to Find Them, What to Do With Them
Writing, by its very nature, is a solitary pursuit. Even those authors who work in tandem with others (co-writers, ghost writers, editors) must necessarily do their actual work by themselves. Fortunately, most of us who seek the writing life are not only mentally and emotionally equipped to handle the solitude, we may even crave it. […]
December 6, 2008 by 18 Comments Writing LifeIs Art Intrinsically Moral? (And Why the Answer Matters)
Art, in its every form, has always been volatile. It challenges people’s beliefs. It forces them to face uncomfortable realities. It constrains them to see the world through an entirely different set of eyes. In experiencing any form of art, but perhaps particularly the novel, we are plunged into the mind of another human being. […]
November 27, 2008 by 20 Comments Writing Life3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Writing for Money
Why do we write? Is it for the fame and the fortune? The respect of family and friends and peers? The goal of making a positive impact on the world? Or is it because of that soul-deep gnawing of creativity that refuses to let us go? Although all of these factors undoubtedly come into play […]
November 13, 2008 by 21 Comments Writing LifeThe Most Important Lesson Any Novel Can Teach You
The completion of a novel is always a cause for celebration. And as I step down from the wild two-year train ride of my latest completion, I can assure you my knees are still sore from dancing the Charleston all over the house. That two-inch pile of paper sitting on my desk is the receipt […]
August 3, 2008 by 14 Comments Writing LifeWriting Rules? We Don’t Need No Rules!
Art has to bear up under the strange dichotomy of both following set patterns and breaking those patterns. Writing is certainly no different. The so-called Writing Rules are what make stories work. And, probably more importantly, they’re what get authors published. Readers and publishers alike expect stories to follow certain parameters. Authors are supposed to […]
July 20, 2008 by 35 Comments Writing LifeThe Ridiculously Surefire Way to Write the Perfect Novel
Is there such a thing as the perfect novel? And, if so, how does one go about writing it? I think most of us would agree that that the answer to the first question is an indisputable no. Perfection in art is unequivocally subjective. What one reader hails as perfection, another will throw across the […]
