“The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it,” writes Steven Pressfield. This is one of the thoughts noted in this list of five principles on fear in the creative process.
Category Archives: Writing
The Right Editor Helps
Editor Nick Harrison has a post on how a writer should attempt to find the right editor or agent for his material, not just the first available. One editor may reject a manuscript or cover letter on a technicality; another may give it a chance.
The first commenter on this post, Tim Riter, offers this illustration from his experience. “For two of my books, I sent in a proposal to an editor, who promptly rejected it with the nicest form rejection letter. Within a year, at writers conferences I met another editor from each of those houses with whom she, I, and the book clicked, and the houses bought it.”
How To Be a Writer
Harlan Coben talks shop on Speakeasy: “As much as we like to think otherwise, it isn’t the act. Writing isn’t about the process. It is about creating. The joy comes not from the process but from the creation.” He recommends three steps to becoming a writer: inspiration, perspiration, and desperation. These will make you a great writer, or perhaps cure you of the writing bug forever.
As You Know, Bob, This List Ain't Bad
I remember a while back we talked about disliking novels with writers as main characters. They were too inspective, we said, or maybe we said “navel-gazing.” I don’t remember. Today, here’s a list of thirteen ways not to start your novel, which look pretty solid.
Now, if you want an example of how to start your great adventure novel (I know you’re writing one during your lunch breaks), roll your eyes over this baby: “From the limbs of ancient live oaks moccasins hung like fat black sausages — which are sometimes called boudin noir, black pudding or blood pudding, though why anyone would refer to a sausage as pudding is hard to understand and it is even more difficult to divine why a person would knowingly eat something made from dried blood in the first place — but be that as it may, our tale is of voodoo and foul murder, not disgusting food.”
Bestselling junk there (taken from this year’s list of Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest winners).
Blogging Ain't About You
Jeff Goins writes, “When I first stated blogging, I was pretty proud of the fact that my writing was being published to a small audience and that they were actually reading it. It felt good to be acknowledged. Really what I was, though, was an insecure writer clinging to every pitiful page view.”
Ouch.
"How Painting is Like Writing"
Gabriel Boray writes, “All art is about tension, conflict and resolution.”
"Productivity is Overrated"
Michael Hyatt, publisher, blogger–no doubt a very decent person–says bloggers shouldn’t worry about being productive, because it’s overrated. Effective writing is much better, and even if it takes a while, it’s worth more to your audience than frequent, quickly written posts.
“This applies to every aspect of your online presence,” he explains. “For example, it is often tempting to tweet snippets of your life’s happenings, but the result of these outbursts is an undermining of your relevance; followers grow less likely to pay attention to your next tweet, which might be great content.” (HT Jane Friedman)
The apologetic of story, part II
I do two-part posts more often than I intend. Because fairly often I get to working a line of thought out in a post, to the extent that I lose track of the original point I wanted to make.
And so it is with this topic.
The thing I was actually excited to say (in the beginning) was this.
Sometimes people react to my novels with the comment, “Well, there’s too much violence and weird stuff in them.”
I have no objection to this (OK, I have a small emotional objection, but nothing I take seriously). This person is clearly not part of my intended audience, and I wish them well in their preferred style and genre, if any.
Because I didn’t write my books for them.
My books are written–primarily–for Christians who struggle with the questions of suffering and evil, and for non-Christians who might possibly be open to considering a Christian perspective on the Great Problem.
That’s why Pastor Harry Gunderson in Wolf Time is crippled, and has lost his wife. That’s why Father Aillil in the Erling books watched his sister raped and taken into slavery, and has never been able to find her again. That’s why he struggles with his own guilt for a crime of his youth.
I don’t say this is the only legitimate moral reason for writing a novel.
But it’s mine.
Out of town this weekend, and then Norway Day at Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis on Sunday.
Oh, and check my book trailer if you haven’t yet experienced its awesomeality.
Challenges of Collaborative Writing
Journalist Bill Morris describes his bad experience with co-writing an article and how a new venture writing with scientists who can’t write may be a great opportunity.
The apologetic of story
Photo by Infrogmation
I’m not sure what set off this train of thought, though I think it was something in a rather good novel I’m reading, which I’ll review in a few days, I expect. The thesis I’d like to defend tonight is this—that Christian fiction carries out a valuable apologetic (that means an argument for the faith) function for the church, an form of apologetic that has only one superior among the weapons in our arsenal.
I’ve long held the opinion that the chief reason people leave the church nowadays is a desire to be rid of Christian morality, particularly (but not exclusively) sexual morality.
But perhaps the number two reason (I suspect) is suffering. Suffering experienced oneself, and suffering observed second-hand, or even heard about. Often even fictional suffering. Continue reading The apologetic of story