So much writing advice out there, including my own, starts from the premise of what not to do. Honestly, it’s often easier to articulate the things that don’t work in a novel than to pinpoint what does. In order to change that up, I’m going to introduce an occasional new feature on the blog where […]
Marilynne Robinson
The one question writers should never ask themselves when reading
Over the course of writing and maintaining this blog, I’ve found that there is one sure-fire way a commenter can set my teeth on edge and make me bring out the snide comment gun. (Well, I suppose it would work for someone to write an ode to queries beginning with rhetorical questions, but so far […]
Themes Schmemes Part II
I have reached some sort of blog milestone in that I was halfway through writing a blog post about some writers focusing too much on the themes of their book in queries before I realized….. something felt a little familiar. Then I realized: I’d written the exact same post before. Right down to the blog […]
Does your novel have a plot?
It’s really difficult to start a novel. Where do you begin? How many pages should be in a chapter? Should you outline? Should you just go for it? What about chapter titles? Chapter titles or numbers, which should it be? Eventually these questions turn into extreme procrastinatory measures (if procrastinatory is not a word, consider […]
This Week in Publishing 5/18/07
BIG week in publishing. First, some background information. Typically in publishing contracts, when an author’s work goes out of print there is a mechanism in place for the author to ask for those rights back so they can try and place the rights elsewhere. Which makes a lot of sense. If a publisher isn’t actively […]
