Dogs and cats. Yankee fans and Red Sox fans. Conservatives and liberals. Studio projects and independent films. We live in a divided global culture that thrives on tension and occasionally throws a punch.
Thank God we’re less concerned these days with race and sexual preference than we are with Team Edward versus Team Jacob.
But then there are screenwriters and novelists.
This is the hook for an article of mine that’s running on Aboutascreeenplay.com, a great site for, well, screenwriters. The piece is called “How to Talk to a Novelist About Writing” — click HERE to check it out.
More Referrals
I also did a major guest post on Problogger.net, which is sort of the Time Magazine of the blogging trade. It’s called, “The Greatest Writing Advice. Ever.” — always a risky way to title a blog post, but 57 out of 59 commenters thus far agree. Check it out HERE.
My friend Jennifer at Procrastinatingwriters.com is celebrating two years online today… swing by and check out her great site HERE.
Another buddy, the profilic Suzannah at Writeitsideways.com, is running a cool piece today, “Should You Make Your Children’s Book into a Series?” My vote is yes. Check out her site and read the article HERE.
Wonderful article today at Collectiveinkwell.com about something near and dear to all our hearts, “Dealing With Author Rejection.” Unless you’re Stephen King, check it out HERE.
And then there’s James at Menwithpens.ca, who doesn’t need my help attracting traffic, mostly because the site is stocked with good stuff from all corners of the writing trade, including six guest posts from yours truly in the Fiction section. Visit James HERE.
And finally… I just received the first off-the-press copies of my new novel yesterday in the mail. This is always a moment that rocks your world no matter how many books you’ve published, and it rocked mine. My publisher, Lloyd Corricelli, and his designer really nailed this thing, and once I had my hands on it I was blown away at the rich colors and the texture of the cover, as well as the design and readabilty of the interior pages.
If you’re ordered the book from Amazon, thank you so much, and you’ll see what I mean soon when it arrives. If not, you can read more about it HERE, and if you like what you see, order it HERE.
About Next Week…
The first half of the first draft of the manuscript for the six core competencies book I’m writing for Writers Digest Books is due to them by March 15th. The title, by the way, will be: Story Engineering: Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing.
Given this last minute time crunch, next week’s posts here on Storyfix will be reprisals of some of the better early posts from last summer. Since the bulk of you weren’t around then, and I can’t assume that everyone has gone back into the archives in depth, this should be new information. And if you’ve already read it, it’s good to circle back in context to some of the more advanced stuff I’ve been posting lately. I’ll post a new article per day… so if you know any writers who aren’t subscribers yet, let ’em know that this is a good time to dive in.
Thanks to all my Storyfix friends, including the guy who thinks I look cheesy in my jeans and leather coat. Hey, it was a book jacket photo at the direction of a professional photographer, who happened to be a beautiful woman who thought it was kinda hot. Hot cheese, I guess. What can I say.
Have a great writing day.
12 Responses
Hey, it’s funny – I didn’t think you’d pick up on my jeans/jacket comment! (New blog and all that!) Suppose that’s the cool thing about blogging communities.
Another quick thanks for all your posts – I do enjoy something more than just the ‘motivational B.S.’ as you put it. Cheers!
Thanks for the shout-out, Larry! I appreciate it!
@Janice — I agree, there’s room for eloquence. It’s just a fine line, and when one crosses it one sees purple. Or more accurately, the readers sees it. I call it being “drunk on one’s own eloquence,” and it’s fatal to a story. Been there. Read it all the time in the unpublished stories I analyze.
My favorite prose artist is Colon Harrison, called the Poet Laureat of American thriller writers. Never purple. Hardly an adjective anywhere. And yet… spellbinding.
Thanks for the links and good luck with your busy schedule in the coming weeks.
By the way, I didn’t comment over at Problogger; most stuff gets said in the first fifty comments, but I just wanted to say how much I liked the five point summing up, especially the emphasis on editing and the part about polishing your writing like an obsessive poet. I loved this line: “…craft is the product of evolved instincts colliding with proven principles.”
I have one query though; I agree with what you say about the importance of ‘voice’, and of brutal editing, but what if that voice is naturally lyrical, and bleaching all traces of “purple” from it is like stripping away the element of sound from a poem?
Last week I read a powerful, hauntingly beautiful novel called ‘An Equal Stillness’. It won a best debut novel award and read like poetry; no image felt superfluous, the metaphors meshed elegantly and the story structure was as tight as a complex sonnet. The author had intelligence, breath and presence as well as a distinctive voice. The writing was exquisite, intense and perfectly pitched, but didn’t tip over into purple prose as it could so easily have done. But it was lyrical and it did get published, and it did win an award.
There’s room for so much more in the world of published books than fast paced plot driven action, easy-read romantic teen horror, and formulaic chic-lit full of flowery detail-bloat. And thank God there’s definitely enough room in the blogosphere for more than How to posts.
Thanks, Larry, for always reminding us that hard work, talent and toolbox skills still don’t add up to success without great ideas, an artist’s sensibility and that “mother’s love” you mentioned in your post. We all need to be reminded of the hope left at the bottom of Pandora’s box.
Thing not to forget about hot cheese: we all likes it on pizza. And we all likes pizza …
I found this blog from your posts on menwithpens.
Good luck with your writing this week. See you on the other side.
I welcome posts from the summer (when I wasn’t around) or whenever you’d like. I’d love to see what’s in those archives! Good luck with meeting your deadline, Larry.
Thank you for directing your lovely readers to my site! And all the best with your bust schedule in the coming weeks 🙂
Yeh, holding your work in your hands for the first time is really a thrill. Even if a writer is going all-digital, it may be well worth his time to format it quick-like-a-bunny, toss it up on a POD site and buy his own copy to sit on his shelf.
I’ve got my four novels sitting on the shelf above my desk. All I’ve got to do is look up and they are a constant reminder that I walked the walk.
Good reads.
Larry, I recently discovered your story structure archives and have been using them in constructing my current wip. And blogging about it as I go. I’ve been linking to your site, and quoting your definitions. I hope that’s okay. I have your site linked on my sidebar as well, because I think your story structure series is brilliant.
Thanks for the article about screenwriters and novelists. Now we need an article about how non-writers can talk to writers about their work!