Some relationships sizzle right off the page. Some strain belief and feel like duds. What separates the Darcy/Bennets of the literary world from all the countless unmemorable pairings? Here are some ways to build a sense of intimacy between your characters when you’re writing a novel. Validation One of the most primal human needs is […]
Jane Austen
This Week in Publishing 7/30/10
This Week! In Publishing! This Friday I am actually out of town and thus may have missed some news from the last few days. Please feel free to fill in any links that I may have missed! (and please forgive iPad-generated typos) First up, while I really love spam sandwiches, I do not love spam […]
This Week in Publishing 5/14/10
This week in………. TYRA MAIL! Screeeeeammmm!!!!!!! Yes, it has finally happened. Tyra Banks. Novelist. The model/talk show host/judge-of-fierceness has smized her way to a book deal for a YA novel called “Modelland,” involving a land populated by “Intoxibellas,” who are, of course, hot and fierce and will cry dramatically if you ask them about the […]
Archetypes vs. cliches
There are many, many stories involving a young man, often of unknown/mysterious parentage, who suddenly realizes he’s the chosen one and has to embark on a quest against impossible odds to save his people. And yet Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, David and Goliath, and countless other stories are all different […]
On the Pointlessness of Questioning Whether “X” Classic Book Would Be Published By Today’s Publishing Industry
You know how whenever someone gets disgruntled with the publishing industry they invariably name a classic book and say, “Well, [insert James Joyce, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, other dead white male/Jane Austen here] would NEVER have found a publisher today.” And this is supposed to remind us about the fickleness of today’s crass publishing business, […]
