The Secret of Writing An Action Movie in Book Form
io9.com – Tuesday September 29, 2015
A great novel can be just as exciting and thrilling as a big-budget Hollywood tentpole. A novel can contain massive, insane action, that movie-makers could never even afford to bring to life. But how do you create an action movie on the page? We talked to 10 of our favorite authors, and here's what they told us.
What Has Surprised You About The Writing Life? Intriguing Answers From Acclaimed Authors
huffingtonpost.com – Monday September 28, 2015
I've had the great fortune of interviewing many acclaimed authors. They always have much to say about the craft of writing. One of the questions I've asked often has been "What has surprised you about the writing life?"
Here is what some of those widely read authors said...
What I learned from writing over 800,000 words in two years
thenextweb.com – Saturday September 26, 2015
Writing didn't come naturally to me, therefore I had to set daily intentions.When I decided I wanted to write more consistently, I sat down at my laptop one day and popped open a Word doc. I stared at the blinking cursor on that blank white page for what felt like forever. That's about the time that I disappeared into the catacombs of YouTube.
Why are men so bad at writing sex scenes?
telegraph.co.uk – Friday September 25, 2015
So, Morrissey is terrible at writing about sex. The only surprising thing about this is that so many people seem surprised: realistically, expecting the famously-once-celibate author of the line ‘There are explosive kegs/between my legs' to pen a tender exploration of lovemaking is a bit like expecting Eminem to write a genre-defining pirate romance novel.
9 Reasons Writing Majors Are Best Prepared For The "Real World"
bustle.com – Wednesday September 23, 2015
Real talk — when I first told my mom that I wanted to be a writer, she wasn't too thrilled, to say the least. Her concerns included, but weren't limited to: "How are you going to make any money to live off of?" "What are you going to do with your time? Just...write?" "Oh my god, you're just going to be holed up in a tiny apartment doing nothing but drinking endless cups of coffee and just bashing at your laptop." Now, I love my mom, and she supports me 150 percent in whatever I do. But I understand why she, along with the parents of any budding writer, would be, shall we say, less than enthusiastic, about their children pursuing writing as more than just a hobby. Even the most famous writers didn't hit the big time right off the bat, despite how talented they were/are. So it's true: being a writer isn't the safest or the most practical path to follow.
Why writing a book through letters is beautiful and wild
theguardian.com – Wednesday September 23, 2015
Author Leah Thomas is in love with letters, that spill their messy, chaotic, over-sharing, unreliably narrated content out into the world – and that's why she wrote her epistolary novel Because You'll Never Meet Me.
Between the novel and the book
thebookseller.com – Monday September 21, 2015
What do Hard Times, Middlemarch, Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, and many more of the greatest novels ever published have in common?
When they were first published, they were not published as books. They were published serially.
People unfamiliar with the history of something tend to assume that what they've always known is the way things have always been. That's why most people think the 20th-century model of publishing, which favoured the publication of novels in book rather than serial format (I call it the "Doorstopper Model"), is a "traditional" form of publishing. It's not.
OF WORDS AND WILL | I’m Just a Manuscript
cornellsun.com – Wednesday September 16, 2015
You probably heard the Schoolhouse Rock song "I'm Just a Bill" at some point in grade school. For anyone who missed out on such a key part of childhood: The song follows the journey of a legislative bill as he hopes to become a national law. After much back and forth between collaborators — and some instrumental breaks — the bill eventually receives the stamp of approval and becomes a law.
This summer I interned for Folio Literary Management, which is a literary agency based in New York City. As I learned about the publishing industry, I couldn't help but notice that the process of getting published mirrors the catchy "I'm Just a Bill." True to the song, writing a book manuscript is only half the battle — authors must work their way through interns, literary agents, editors and publishers in order to see their book on a shelf at Barnes and Noble.
How To Handle Rejection of Your Writing, Without Becoming a Basket Case
io9.com – Wednesday September 16, 2015
Rejection is part of being a writer. Unless you're that one-in-a-billion wunderkind who gets "discovered" while you're still in high school and goes on to become a literary sensation. Almost everybody who writes stories (or anything) has their work dismissed and sent packing, over and over. And learning to deal with rejection is a crucial part of getting better at this crazy game—both the writing part, and the selling part. But it never gets easy.
Pete Kalu’s top tips for writing non-cliched multicultural characters
theguardian.com – Wednesday September 16, 2015
Who does the washing up? How many kisses on greeting? Why avoid writing about Indian weddings? The award-winning playwright, poet and novelist Pete Kalu shares how to create multicultural characters that are well rounded but not cliched
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