David Farland’s Writing Tips—Your Better Half
A quick judgment. A few years ago, I happened to meet a writer at a convention who had produced half a dozen novels. I’d seen her work on a display table. Her books were self-published and full of misspellings and grammatical errors. I wasn’t impressed. As I was chatting with her, a young lady came […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: “Taking Your Book to Television” from Kevin Beggs
Recently I interviewed Kevin Beggs, Chairman of the Television Group for Lionsgate Entertainment at the Apex-Writer’s Group, who oversees production and development of all scripted and non-scripted programming. He’s had a long string of television hits, so I won’t list many, but his works include series like Mad Men, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Dangerous Liaisons, Orange […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: The Trouble with “Was”
A new writer recently asked, “I’ve been told to avoid the use of the word “was,” but I frequently see it used in published fiction. So, can you use “was” in certain instances, or should I avoid it as best as I can?” The truth is that “was” is a perfectly good word and you […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: “Greenlighting” a Novel
In Hollywood, before a producer or a studio even begins filming a movie, they go through a process called “greenlighting” to figure out whether it is worth the effort. When you greenlight a film, you do a great deal of research to figure out things like: How large is the audience for this film? What […]
Boosting Your Prose – Part 1: Setting
I am currently in Denver but thought I would share checklists over the next few weeks that I use to go over each and every one of my stories to make sure that all of my stories are “up to snuff,” so to speak. I think that setting up your setting is something you need […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips—Writing the “Big” Book
When you look at novels carefully, you will notice that the bestselling books of all time are usually big “doorstoppers.” In each genre, we see this pattern. When the novel Dune was published, it was rejected by every publisher in the business until a company that sold engine books illustrating engine parts (so that you […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Math for Writers
In high school, I was fairly good in math—good enough to win a National Math Award and complete several years of college math in one year. As a writer, you would think that we don’t need to use math very much, but we do it every day. For example, yesterday I wrote 2200 words on […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips—3 Proving Questions for Big Ideas.
Over the years, I’ve seen a number of authors struggle with ideas for novels. Very often, those ideas mature into books, and sometimes they even become huge bestsellers. But how do you know if you’ve got an idea for a big book? Last week, a young man presented an idea that would work just fine. […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Who is this Story about, really?
When you create a story, perhaps the most monumental decision that you will make is the one regarding your protagonist. How many are there? What ages? Genders? Ethnicities? and so on. The reason that this is important is that by choosing protagonists, you may be limiting your audience. A few years ago, a survey found […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Resonance in Settings
When you write a story, any story, you write within the context of the whole of literature, of everything that has gone before. The choice of words that you use will provide little clues to the story that your readers will often absorb almost instantly as they read. The reader might not consciously recognize an […]