Time to Get Serious
A lot of people “play” at writing. We tend to think of it as a hobby or a pastime. But I sometimes wonder how much great art is really created by those who don’t take their work seriously. I wonder how serious Mozart really was about his music, or how dedicated Rembrandt was to his […]
Is My Novel Too Long?
I got this question once about writing large novels. We may all ask a variation of it, is my novel too long? How precise can I be? Is this much detail too boring? “So much advice to writers is about suspense, or scene goals, or characters overcoming conflict. One published author told me to take […]
Persistence Is Key
There is a myth among the general public that the greatest writers are born with uncanny innate talents that average folks dare not aspire to. Yet there is only a sliver of truth to that argument. Talent is helpful, especially for new authors who are just trying to break in, but you can’t make a […]
Writing Hyper Realism
So how do you write a “hyper-real” scene?
There are several keys.
Select unconventional images to propel the scene forward.
Appeal to powerful emotions such as love, fear, anger, guilt, and so on.
Be careful to apply your poetic sensibilities to every line.
Make sure that you appeal to all of the senses.
How Much Money Do You Need?
It takes money to make money. Often, new writers will ask, “How much money do you need in order to start a writing career?” The answers can vary dramatically, so here are some things to think about. When I was a young writer, I lived in a small house with my wife and one or […]
Your First Five Pages
When you send a novel to an agent or publisher, they normally ask for the first five or ten pages, just so that they can gauge your writing skill. If those pages don’t grab the reader, it won’t sell. As an editor, I read thousands of stories a year, and it would be difficult to […]
Artistry
There are a lot of people who want to write so that they can get rich quickly, and I worry about them. I don’t begrudge people the desire to get rich. If you’re a writer and you make a decent wage at it, it will give you the freedom to keep writing. That’s a good […]
What “Rejection” Really Means
For weeks I’ve been judging a large contest. I’ve had to “reject” thousands of stories. I hate the word “reject,” because it doesn’t really express what I want to say. Very often I will read the opening to a story and it is obviously the first work of a very young writer. It may have […]
Building a Better Battering Ram – “When do I begin approaching agents?”
“When do I begin approaching agents?” I get that question at least once a week, and my answer is always the same: “When your novel is done. And by that I mean, well done!” I think that it is human nature to be eager. When we are working on a novel, and we’re excited about […]
Writing as Magic
Recently I met Orson Scott Card, and he asked me if I’m still teaching writing classes. I said yes, and I knew that he was teaching, too. Then he said something interesting, he said in essence, “You know, sometimes I feel guilty for trying to teach something that at its heart feels so much akin […]