This Year You Write Your Novel
Walter Mosley
Language: English
Pages: 128
ISBN: 0316065498
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
No more excuses. "Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls," bestselling novelist Walter Mosley advises. Anyone can write a novel now, and in this essential book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Walter Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish it in one year. Mosley tells how to:
- Create a daily writing regimen to fit any writer's needs--and how to stick to it.
- Determine the narrative voice that's right for every writer's style.
- Get past those first challenging sentences and into the heart of a story.
Intended as both inspiration and instruction, THIS YEAR YOU WRITE YOUR NOVEL provides the tools to turn out a first draft painlessly and then revise it into something finer.
see that Trip is lying? What will happen if Marissa goes up to Victor’s apartment in the middle of the night? I need to know. I have to turn the page. So. . . . you don’t, when you introduce Victor, say, “Trip’s friend Victor, who will later seduce Marissa when she comes to his apartment to borrow bail money to get Trip out of jail. . . #8221; You let the reader worry that Marissa may be set upon by this sexual predator, but you don’t let them know what will happen. We already know that Victor
silently. You will detect words and phrasings that are wrong, misplaced, and overly used. You will become aware of giant plot gaffes and a plethora of misspellings. This is because, after rewriting for a while, you begin to know what you are (re)reading without actually reading it. You overlook mistakes because you know what you meant. I cannot stress how important this recording can be to your work. Maybe you are in the fortieth week of the book. This is the moment to reconsider and reflect on
one will be better. 5. Miscellany on genre A novel is a novel is a novel. A crime story is a novel. A romance is a novel. A book about aliens that came to Earth millennia ago and made us what we are is also a novel. Most books have elements of crime, mystery, romance, and the fabulous to them. No one who is serious about literature would dismiss One Hundred Years of Solitude for being a fantasy. No one would write off The Stranger because of its courtroom or crime details. All novels have
first saw him he was looking my way and I swear I thought he was about to bolt through the door.” Nareen Padam’s eyes got tight, giving her a contemplative air, as if Alice had posed a riddle. “Maybe,” dark-eyed Nareen said, “he was worried that you’d figured out one of his schemes against you and your family. Maybe he was afraid you’d make a scene.” After this meeting, your narrator could jump to Nareen’s shoulder, but I wouldn’t suggest it. The third-person narrator should be picky about the
nineteenth century and earlier) use this voice magnificently. The proper omniscient narrator’s voice can be used effectively with the understanding that even the voice of God can have slight variations and rules by which it decides to impart information. For instance, your omniscient narrator might be so high and mighty that she doesn’t waste time wondering about the truths or complex motivations of the characters she presents. Captain Jack Hatter was a seafaring man who got it in mind that he