A Different Kind of Writing "How To"...

[littlemissattitude]

One of the blogs I visit fairly regularly is Deep Genre, which is maintained by a group of science fiction and fantasy writers in conversation with each other, with other writers, and with readers. Among others participating in the blog are Constance Ash, Carol Berg, and Kate Elliot. I find it a good place to go to get a little inspiration when my own writing isn't going well.

Recently, one of the other participants, David Louis Edelman, has written a two part guide to "How To Write A Novel". Like all of these sorts of guides, this one is very personal and very subjective. However, as I've read along, I have found some helpful insights that I thought some of you all might be interested in. So, you can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.

The best think I found in it? The admonition that if you are going to write something you have to commit to it. Go. Read. You might not find anything you can use there. On the other hand, you just might.

Anyway, if you do happen to go over and read it, I'd be interested in knowing what you think of it.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've been visiting Deep Genre lately, too. At first out of curiosity (I know some of the writers there), but now because I'm finding the discussions interesting.

And you're right, that's a very good article.

[Miladysa]

Excellent article and advice which I am going to adopt!

Thank you.

[Imitar]

Originally Posted by Miladysa

Excellent article and advice which I am going to adopt!

Thank you.

I second that. Just reading that article alone gives me motivation to continue writing.

[Lith]

This is from How to Write a Novel, Part 2: "Tell your first readers you don’t need to know that you misspelled the word “pernicious” on pages 36 and 129; you need to know the answers to the broad questions. Does the book work? Are the characters sympathetic (or not sympathetic, as the case may be)? Is the book interesting, boring, confusing, amusing, intriguing? Assure them that you want The Truth and that you won’t take it personally if they don’t care for the book — as long as they tell you why."

This made me laugh. I recently handed the first 17 pages of draft 2 to my mother and brother, and she went through the whole thing, and asked where the rest of it was. When I told her to be free to add comments, I didn't expect her to only re-mark all my commas! And she'd remarked nearly all of them!

It's going to be a long process, trying to get anything beyond grammar out of her. Even when I tell her specifically that it's not what I'm looking for at this stage...[/rant]

[Culhwch]

A very good little article. I read this last Wednesday night while I was bored at work. This Wednesday I might have to backtrack through DeepGenre's archives...