There’s a perilous word fiction writers need to watch out for. The word is ‘had.’
What I found was a moment where the main character has to figuratively look at himself, as in the mirror. He is confronted with a disturbing truth: change or die.
Know your death stakes! This is going to be crucial in order for you to write your novel from the middle.
You must want it enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist you must learn your craft – then you can add all the genius you like.” – Phyllis Whitney.
To make it as a writer you need to be two things: systematic and relentless.
A quirky, colorful character overstays her welcome after a few chapters, unless trouble comes calling.
Inside you there are universes. You contain multitudes.
You don’t always have to render the feelings of your characters, but you must know what they are in every scene. That way, the actions and dialogue will have an organic complexity that breathes life into fiction.
Robert Jordan put up his field glasses, shading the lenses carefully with his cupped hands even though there was now no sun to make a glint, and there was the rail of the bridge as clear as though you could reach out and touch it and there was the face of the sentry so clear he could see the sunken cheeks the ash on the cigarette and the greasy shine of the bayonet.
Start by asking if this is writer’s laziness as opposed to writer’s block.
Are you a real writer? Then keep writing. And don’t stop. Ever.
If you up your skill and take more chances, your odds of success increase.
Someone with less talent who works hard often outperforms the gifted.
The Care Package is a relationship the Lead has with someone else, in which he shows his concern, through word or deed, for that character’s well being.
People who read want one of two things: knowledge or entertainment. When you can give them both, so much the better.
Having a Care Package relationship keeps a character from being completely selfish.
But love don’t make things nice, it ruins everything, it breaks your heart, it makes things a mess. We’re not here to make things perfect. Snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. We are here to ruin ourselves and break our hearts and love the wrong people and die!
Keep writing. Get to the end. Don’t allow yourself to abandon the project. You must finish what you write. But what, you ask, if I have a chaotic mess at the end? Celebrate. This is the way it usually is, even for veteran novelists.
A blank page is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.
But somebody told me once you have to write what you know.” “Hooey! Write what you burn with, and then find out what you need to know to write it.
Seek the fellowship of other writers. A writers conference is a great way to meet other scribes. Email makes it easy to keep in touch. Consider forming a circle of such friends.