David Farland’s Writing Tips: “The One Great Story”
What stories affect you profoundly? Which ones are your favorites? If you had to make a list of the three most influential of stories, could you? About 15 years ago, I heard a wise publisher say that, and I’ll paraphrase, “there is only one great story. It’s the story of a young person who loses […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: “Mental Toughness”
As writers, we’re faced with lots of different types of stresses. It’s not always just searching for the right word in a description or trying to meet a story deadline. While working on novels, I’ve had to deal with just about everything. For example, I was once deep in writing a great scene when […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips—Writing Superstars
When you begin writing, you go through different phases. As a “wannabe,” you may begin practicing writing as a hobby and start developing your talents. As a “first-time author” you may begin winning notoriety and further developing your skills—learning to organize your time, gauging the markets, and so on. As a “midlist author” you’re […]
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, […]
Avoiding Terrible Advice
There’s a lot of bad advice floating around out there. Some of it is bad for everyone, but some of it might just be bad for you. For example, here’s some terrible advice. “Write the kind of novel that you love. Don’t worry about anyone else’s hopes or dreams or expectations. You’re not them. You […]
Writing for the Holidays
The midwinter is actually my favorite time of the year to write. There aren’t many conventions or writing workshops in January and February, since organizers know that their customers are busy with family affairs, so I like to focus on work. But there are some things that you should know as a writer. First, this […]
Investing in Your Writing
As a young writer, I used to set a rather simple writing goal: spend at least $500 per year to grow my skills as a writer. In the early days, at the age of 17, I bought my first used typewriter, purchased some writing books from the university, and then got a subscription to some […]
Powerful Openings
Is your opening powerful? If not, why not? I’ve been judging a huge writing contest this week, and had literally a couple hundred stories that came close to placing as finalists. These stories were good, the writing beautiful, but the story itself was often flawed—and usually in the opening. You see, in a short story, […]
Be Patient
Every author is impatient for good news. We’re all working toward something. You might be working toward your first sale, or maybe it’s your next novel contract. You might be trying to get a movie deal, or perhaps land on the New York Times bestseller list. That’s the way that it should be. You should […]
The Irresistible Novel
Two or three times a week I get asked, “Where can I find a great book on editing?” I’m always flummoxed by that question. You see, I’ve read dozens of excellent books on editing, and I always have to stop and say, “First, you can’t read just one book on editing. If you really want […]
