The Decline of Traditional Publishing

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The publishing industry is hard to figure out.For one thing, the sheer number of books published in the United States is outrageous. The last I heard it was in the neighborhood of 65,000 annually.Good business practice? No! These publishers are competing with themselves, often publishing dozens of titles on the same hot topic. Would any other industry do such a thing?Why does publishing do it?It

comments | | Read More...

Resonance by Stating a Bold and Surprising Conclusion at the Top

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Stating a bold, surprising conclusion at the top can lend resonance to what follows. In poetry we see an exquisite example of this in T.S. Eliot's opening to "The Wasteland." April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.Then there's Dickens' memorable and ever-timely opening to A Tale of Two Cities, which he

comments | | Read More...

To be a writer

Friday, April 11, 2008

Why do you want to be a writer?The question itself is revealing. Is that what you want? "To be a writer"?To BE a writer. To BE something. Not to DO something?I don't think there is any field with such a vast majority of simple "wanna-bees." Writing attracts people with this desire because it is a way to get attention.They view writing as some sort of public address system, a way to be heard.

comments | | Read More...

Writing in Threes

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Via Bertram's Blog:To use the power of three in articles: Set up your premise, prove it, conclude it.To use the power of three in a mystery: Give one clue to tantalize; two to suggest a direction of discovery; three to create a pattern.To use the power of three in a story: Create tension, develop it, release it.To use the power of three in description: Mention three attributes.To use the power of

comments | | Read More...

Writer's Guides

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Time is running out to save on any edition of To Write That Novel (paperback, PDF, or on CD-ROM) or Gotta Write? during the March Madness Sale, which ends on Monday.

comments | | Read More...

Resonating Titles

Saturday, March 29, 2008

We have just seen how a resonant title lends resonance to a story (e.g., Death in the Afternoon). Resonant chapter titles do likewise. Alternatively, some authors name the parts of a novel with resonant titles. Such titles often use metaphors or play on a familiar opposite. For example, the title "Nothing Comes to Those Who Wait" plays on the familiar opposite saying All things come to those

comments | | Read More...

Resonance of Invoking Death

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Invoking death resonates because it foreshadows. You can invoke the specter of death with imagery, a metaphor, an omen, or a premonition. If the story ends with the death of your main character, invoking death at the outset really resonates.Shakespeare invoked death in Juliet's first words about Romeo after meeting him:Go ask his name. If he be married,My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

comments | | Read More...

"Messed-Up, Untidy" Characters

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Via Curiosities at The Millions:Richard Russo: "My fictional Eliot [Spitzer] would be complex, would contain paradoxes. He would not be a hypocrite. My Eliot would believe with his whole heart in his crusades against the corrupt and the powerful and the privileged, even as he worked studiously to undermine his legacy. Fiction can accommodate such paradoxes, provided they're explained."I'm sorry,

comments | | Read More...

Resonance of Authenticity

Monday, March 17, 2008

The imprimatur of an authority figure lends words credibility via resonance. As a novelist you can take advantage of this fact for greater authenticity. For, in a novel credibility is that all-important commodity known as suspension of disbelief. You can make a character seem authentic by anointing him with the resonance of authority. Just have him expound on the ideas of an anointed authority

comments | | Read More...

A Weekly Writing Prompt

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Get a weekly writing prompt of three words every Wednesday at Three Word Wednesday.This week's prompt is: Apartment, Began, NumbSee an example of how to play at Write from Karen: The Doctor is Human After All.Suggestions:My eyes quickly skipped over the gloves and landed on the waste basket tucked into a hole under the counter top, the huge red triangle stating it was for hazardous materials only

comments | | Read More...

Resonance through Reference to Religion/Invoking Authority

There are many ways to use references to religion for resonance. Poetry and literature often gain it through epigraphs. They also often gain it through Biblical allusions or through allusions to other famous words. Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and Evan Hunter's Vespers both derive resonance from the religious reference in their titles. Actions like murder that take place at the same

comments | | Read More...

Oh! The Damage to Our Mother Tongue!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

I cannot pass this up!Norm Geras writes in Tradition, tradition:Suppose you set out deliberately to write a column which would be so obviously laughable a decade or three on that it already is laughable, to put together a sad rant about how everything is going to the dogs, you couldn't do much better than the piece I've just read by David Gelernter. It's an 'end of civilization as we know it'

comments | | Read More...

Writing Achonologically

Thursday, February 21, 2008

You get a little of this and little of that in the Weblog of Norman Geras, including his Writer's Choice series. Here is an excellent piece by Angela Young:I was given a proof copy of Maggie O'Farrell's first novel, After You'd Gone, in 1999. I can't remember why, now. It wasn't for review because I'm not a professional reviewer, and I didn't read it until 2002, at least two years after its

comments | | Read More...

Resonance through Name-Dropping

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Nobody forgets the first words of Herman Melville's Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael," because of the Biblical reverberations of that name.You can also achieve resonance through the name of a famous person or historical figure who makes a cameo appearance in the story as a character. Jack Higgins has done this in his novels with great success.

comments | | Read More...

Hyperbole

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

There are many ways to make writing resonate. They all often employ a simile or metaphor.Here are some ways to make action resonate: Invoke images of some past event that occurred in the same place.Jump-cut between scenes happening simultaneously.Zoom out or in to make an image resonate like the first photos of Earth from outer space did.Those are ideal ways to make writing resonate, because they

comments | | Read More...

Literary Resonance in the Art of Writing

Sunday, January 20, 2008

To "resonate" literally means to bounce back and forth between two states or places. Resonate comes from the Latin word for "resound." In sound, resonance is a prolonged response to something that caused things to vibrate. When sound reverberates, it's resonating within a bounded space, like the body of a guitar. Thunder often resonates/reverberates across an uneven landscape.Resonance in

comments | | Read More...

More on the Business of Writing

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Continued from The Business of Writing Part 1.Another thing I learned is that developing a line of products makes a big difference. Sales of my tennis strategy guide took off when I added more products and put them in a Pro Shop on the site.I guess that makes sense. Potential customers then see that you are serious. They see experience creating these publications, and this instills greater trust

comments | | Read More...