May 2009

How to Present Background in Your Novel

Presenting background is one of those eternally difficult techniques for novelists. It’s inherently dull because it stops your story—something you want to avoid. Yet it’s absolutely necessary if the reader is to understand your characters’ actions and motivations. So often, beginning writers give far too much background, then compound the mistake by putting the background [...]

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The Write Stuff: What It Takes to Be a Novelist

What it takes to be a writer

Tom Wolfe says he wrote The Right Stuff because he wanted to find out why astronauts accept the danger of space flight. In the novel he writes of the tremendous risks test pilots take, and of the mental and physical characteristics their jobs demand—what he calls “the right stuff.” Writers need the “write” stuff, too, [...]

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Novelist, Edit Thyself!

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A common writer’s complaint in recent years is that editors no longer edit. That’s by no means true, but it is true that many editors are not able to devote the time to improving a manuscript that they once could. Today, many editors are more like marketers, concentrating first on acquiring books that will make [...]

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