No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put at just the right place. —Isaac Babel, “Guy de Maupassant” A convincing lie is, in its own way, a tiny, perfect narrative. —William Boyd, “A Short History of the Short Story” This week we’re linking to the… Read more“Linking to the Willesden Herald”
Tag: Writing Advice
Pulp Rag: Inflicting cause-&-effect upon your reader with Henry James
“I went to confer a favour and you will go to ask one. If they are proud you will be on the right side.” —Henry James as Mrs. Prest, “The Aspern Papers” Henry James was a writer of the first order, with an understanding of character astonishing in its depth,… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Inflicting cause-&-effect upon your reader with Henry James”
Pulp Rag: Crafting an impossible plot with Maria Dermout
“All of us, always, when we’re young, have to hold something for those who are old, and we drop it and want to get away, and draw a ship in the sand to reach a new country, and we always forget the ballast—there is no ballast but the earth of… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Crafting an impossible plot with Maria Dermout”
Scanning far and wide
So far I have managed to spend almost the entire day wrestling fruitlessly with my website. Always a rewarding exercise. Today I’m going to highlight stuff off Twitter I wish I had time to engage in long, witty discussion about, like: Agent Jenny Bent‘s unexpected decision to hate sentence fragments…. Read more“Scanning far and wide”
Donald Maass Compilation & Workshop in Dallas
Jason Myers mentioned in the comments last Friday that he was hoping to get Donald Maass to Dallas, Texas, to teach a workshop. Donald Maass dropped by this morning to let us know that he is, in fact, scheduled to do a “Fire in Fiction” Workshop in Dallas next July… Read more“Donald Maass Compilation & Workshop in Dallas”
Pulp Rag: Joining the gang
So I’m linking today to Donald Maass and his free book The Career Novelist, in which he asks first and foremost: are you writing for approval? or are you writing for the sake of writing? But here on Pulp Rag I’m going to get into yet a third reason: to… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Joining the gang”
Linking to Donald Maass
This week we’re linking to literary agent Donald Maass, but even more than that, we’re linking to the free download of his book The Career Novelist. Why? Because Maass has done us all a huge service with this book, and I’d like to direct excellent aspiring writers his way. Read… Read more“Linking to Donald Maass”
Pulp Rag: Molding and being molded
We’ve talked about the quest. Now let’s talk about the relationship novel. People getting in trouble alone—People getting in trouble with others. The two stories there are to tell. There’s a legend that after Faulkner left Hollywood someone found a piece of paper in the garbage can by his desk…. Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Molding and being molded”
Justifying author bios
Have you ever wondered why agents want to see an author bio paragraph in a query letter that is—as least ostensibly—supposed to be entirely about selling them on one particular book? They don’t want to hear about your other unpublished novels or ideas, but they do want to know whether… Read more“Justifying author bios”
Pulp Rag: Aiming past ecstasy
The ultimate aim of the quest must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but the wisdom and power to serve others. —Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, via Kathryn Estrada So let’s talk about the quest plot structure. Because writing itself is a quest, and if you don’t know… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Aiming past ecstasy”