David Farland’s Writing Tip: Touching Your Audience Deeply through Viewpoint
Almost every time a book is made into film, you will hear the comment over and over, “The book was better.” Some time ago I was talking to a friend of Christopher Paolini, whose novel Eragon was made into a movie, and some fans of the books were so disappointed in the film adaptation, […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Opening Well
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Opening Well There’s a list of things that you need to open a story. In fact, depending upon the author you talk to, there are dozens of different lists. For example, one editor I respect recently suggested that in the opening, you need to establish the “Ghost” of the story, spelled […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Be Double-Minded
The Apostle James warned that “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” For characters, being double-minded is a good thing. A “double-minded” person has the quality of duality. That means that he is unstable, and the reader can never be quite sure what he will do under certain circumstances. Given this, […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips—Building a Bookstore in Your Mind
Yesterday I happened to meet a nice gentleman who wants to be a writer. Specifically, ten years ago he got an idea for a novel, and it has been eating at him ever since. I meet a lot of people like that, people who have an idea for a novel or two. But here is […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Good News for Writers!
Over the past few weeks I’ve heard a lot of “worry” in the air. Writers have been talking about the Covid virus, worrying about recession, worrying that book stores might close, that the publishing industry is headed for a downturn, and so on. If you worry about things that might happen, you’re in trouble. On […]
Writing Tips: Switching Gears
Sometimes as writers, when we give writing advice, we often give advice by telling “How I write” instead of “How to write.” This idea came to me strongly after I spoke on a podcast with the good folks at Writing Excuses.
David Farland’s Writing Tips: One Tip for a Powerful Ending
A few days ago, I was thinking about the endings to stories and what they made me feel. In particular, I was wondering, “What makes a story stick with me? What makes it feel like a classic?” One author suggested that a great story typically arouses a sense of tragic romance. In other words, love […]
David Farland Writing Tip: Writing Dystopias
A lot of people are wondering why dystopias are so popular. They haven’t realized that they’ve always been popular. In his book Writing the Blockbuster Novel, the superstar agent Albert Zuckerman points out that if you want a book to go huge, you should transport a reader to a place that he wants to be. […]
David Farland’s Writing Tip-“The Shiver Test”
When you’re brainstorming a new story, how do you know that it will be good? Recently a young writer presented me with an outline for a novel that was nicely formed, had an interesting protagonist, and appeared to be well designed. She said, “It’s almost all there, but I don’t quite feel that it’s […]
What’s Good Writing?
Last week I heard from a young writer who had written several books and self-published them, but he said that he looked at his books one day and realized that they “weren’t really written to professional standards,” so he took them offline and decided to start over. He wanted to write books of higher literary quality, and so he rededicated himself to his craft.