101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists: Insider Secrets from Top Writers
Andrew McAleer
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 1598695894
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This title focuses on the behaviors necessary to succeed in the dog-eat-dog world of fiction writing by asking successful authors how they practice their craft. Readers will learn how to adopt those habits on their quest to become novelists. The book will inspire, nourish, and provide the needed kick in the pants to turn the wannabes into doers! The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists is full of "aha" experiences as the reader uncovers the collected wisdom from the cream of today’s fiction writers.
asked him where all the quarters came from. He said that because the bank is next to a Laundromat, they end up with sacks and sacks of quarters. I asked him what happens to all the quarters, and he told me that they go to the Federal Reserve. He added that the old man from the Federal Reserve always became grouchy at the bank because he hated toting the heavy bags out to the truck. I asked the assistant manager if I could pick up one of the bags to experience what it felt like to tote one around.
and somehow figure out a way to modify your daily itinerary. Do you head out for work fifteen minutes early every morning because you want to pick up that cup of coffee from your favorite shop? Sounds like you could save fifteen minutes here. Do you head out to lunch with the boys everyday? This one may have to go, too. How about a morning break at work? Only ten minutes? Sounds to me like you could draft a good outline here for your daily quota. After all, you came up with a good idea during
An old farmer, nervous that his son just sits around doing nothing except waiting for life to happen, looks at him and says, “Son, there are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree. You can climb it or sit on an acorn and wait.” When I first started writing seriously more than ten years ago, I knew that I wanted to be a novelist, but I also knew that to get an agent or editor interested in my work, I would have to have some kind of publishing record. Aside from a few articles I published in
eyes—only much wiser than mine. MICHAEL WIECEK You know how you can really respect an editor? Make sure that everything you send her is as well-written and as polished as you can possibly manage. They all like editing— after all, that’s what they joined the publishing world to do—but all the other responsibilities that have been added to their job description don’t leave much time for it. Diamonds in the rough are fine, but a brilliant, perfectly finished marquise-cut stone is even better. MARY
respectfully to what they have to say and the changes they think you should make. Then sit on their suggestions for a few days, mulling and considering them, before you determine if the changes will be for the better, or rather undermine the integrity of the work as you see it. Most of the time, after the initial burst of panic passes, I’ve come to see that most of what my editor has suggested is right on the money. It doesn’t always make it easier to actually cut those scenes, or add that