Art and Life in Novel Writing
Classic and valuable archive. Misc pearls of utility, agent irritation points, plus takeaways on craft. Also, evil authors abound!
108 topics in this forum
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When it comes to my all-time favorite fictional character it will always and forever be Andrew Wiggins, better known as Ender. I have loved fictional stories ever since I could read. I especially love fantasy and sci-fi. However, I had never really connected with a main character very deeply in a novel until I read Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, when I was in the latter part of Junior High school. I have since read that story multiple times and my 14-year-old self connects just as deeply every time. Every author’s dream, right, to have their stories cherished for decades? But why did I completely fall in love with this particular character? I was a teenage girl w…
Last reply by KaraBosshardt, -
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An absorbing conversation about "sensitivity reading" and the extreme absurdities resulting from the SR rationale.
Last reply by Chief Editor M. Neff, -
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New York Pitch Book Reports "The Art of Fiction" by John Gardner (a great primer for this commercial program) How did the book help you as a writer? What overall aspects of it taught you something“ The Art of Fiction” helped me as a writer by introducing me to the concept of fiction as a vivid dream and presenting many tools to create that dream for the reader. The book also talks about the important of sentence structure down to word choice and explains the use of scansion as a tool to create the vivid dream. What two or three major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your writing a…
Last reply by LauraLou, -
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Barbara Zitwer specializes in discovering new writers from all over the world. They look for writers with original voices and who have commercial, international appeal, and also for books that have potential to be developed for film and television. Barbara Zitwer herself specializes in developing books and editing. She has written several books as well as the play, PAPER DOLL, about Jaqueline Susann, produced in regional theaters throughout the US. She has produced landmark films such as VAMPIRE'S KISS with Nicolas Cage, was Executive Producer on LAZARUS RISING with Columbia Tri-Star and Bernie Sofronski, and she executive produced THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB with Juli…
Last reply by Chief Editor M. Neff, -
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Since you asked... Nearly everyone has the potential to write a breakout novel and go on to become a successful commercial author, but precious few finally accomplish the task. Do we know why this is the rule? Writer conferences, author workshops, books, ms editors, and even the most pointless of MFA programs play a part in a writer's evolution, but none of these provide the overall pragmatic means and method to finish the job (and quite often, not even to start it). If this were not the case, an imaginative and ambitious writer would only have to attend an MFA program at Iowa, for example, and become a published author in due course. But this rarely if ever hap…
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PROSE DRILLS If you are not Annie Proulx, you need to work on developing a powerful literary voice. All writer styles and voices are in large part a fusion of past immersions into good (or bad) literature. It‘s so true that you only write as well as you read. The writing of good authors soaks into you, becomes part of you, defines your ability to express. The point of the following prose drills is to speed up that process by a hundred fold. The selection of writers is diverse, beginning with a little Shakespeare and on up to modern lit. The names of the writers are not important, only their prose. Each of the following blocks of narrative is to be written i…
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Seeing that they were being ignored, the man who made the comment once again spoke up, referring to the size of Brigitte’s breasts, and made a squeezing motion with his hands. Seeing this, the owner of the café rushed over and suggested that the three men leave the women to their coffee and pastries. The three men looked at each other, shrugged, and turned to leave. Lauren looked at Lily and Brigitte and said, “I know the little foul-mouthed one. He’s a bully, always picking on women and children.” As the men reached the door, Lily looked at her two friends and uttered, “Cochon,” meaning pig. The last man out the door…
Last reply by Terrence Pershall, -
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The Soap Maker - The main character's grandfather who is known for his fine French handmade soaps. He joins the Resistance at the beginning if WWII and communicates with other members of the Resistance by concealing messages in the bars of his soaps, which he has the main character deliver. Review-3_TheSoapMaker.pdf
Last reply by Terrence Pershall,
ALGONKIAN SUCCESS STORIES
What should you accept as credible?
Where it All Began
