Reading and Rereading

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. (Robertson Davies)

Staying Close to the Edge

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center. (Kurt Vonnegut)

Write What You Know

What the heck does that mean, anyway? Does it mean I can't write about anything that hasn't happened to me? If it doesn't involve the Midwest or lawyers or writers or book-selling, am I out of my depth?

The answer, of course, is that this rule is not to be interpreted literally. I have heard E. L. Doctorow say that any writer of fiction should be able to write about any period in history after reading only a single sentence written from that time. He was telling his audience that writers are blessed with active imaginations for a reason. I need only enough familiarity with my subject matter to give the reader the feeling that I have some idea of what I am talking about.

You can achieve most of what you need through a little bit of research, a smidgen of intuition, and a judicious use of imagination. What you want to avoid-what the rule is really all about-is trying to write a story in which the central elements rely on extensive life knowledge that you don't have. So, for example, you don't want to tackle a story in which the lead character is a doctor trying to cure cancer and where a consideration of various current advances in medicine is central to the plot if you don't know anything about doctors or cancer or medicine and don't want to research all three extensively. You want to write about aspects of the human condition that you are comfortable exploring or inhabiting over the course of your book.

From Sometimes the Magic Happens by Terry Brooks.

Starting a Novel or a Marriage

Starting a novel isn't so different from starting a marriage. You are diving into the lives of your characters, knowing that you will fall in love with all of them, knowing (as surely Elizabeth Taylor knew) that in the end the love will finish and turn you out on the street alone.

from "Why Not Put Off Till Tomorrow the Novel You Could Begin Today?" (Ann Patchett)

Casting the Minor Roles in Your Fiction

Secondary characters are like kids and dogs: they'll steal a scene if you let them.

With secondary and bit players you have the opportunity to add spice to your story. Any minor character can be made more interesting if you'll just give the process some thought. Cab drivers, truck drivers, waitresses, cops,doormen, maids--a whole host of "bit players" spring up in our fiction and it's easy to reach for the cliche models.

Most fiction writers invent secondary characters as the need for them arises in the story (a novel will require many, a short story very few or none at all). A scene involving the main character will be imagined, and thenpopulated with other characters that must be present to make the scene work. When this happens, spend at least a few minutes "auditioning" possible characters, and then cast the best one for each role, avoiding stereotypes.Once that's done, take a few minutes to create the following basic "bio" for each secondary character:

* Name, vocation, nationality

* A physical tag, one thing that stands out about his/her physical appearance

* A speech tag, anything about the mode of speech that is unique

This is the start. If you decide later to expand the secondary character, you can simply add more depth to the portrait. If, however, this is more of a bit player--one who won't have a significant impact on character or plot--you probably won't have to go any further.

a tip from WritersDigest.com

Style

In stating as fully as I could how things really were, it was often very difficult and I wrote awkwardly and the awkwardness is what they called my style. All mistakes and awkwardness are easy to see, and they called it style. (Ernest Hemingway)

The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

One of my favorite writers is Flannery O'Connor. I think her Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor is one of the greatest books of the 20th century (although I've never seen it on anyone else's list). One can open the book at random and find great pearls of wisdom. I found the following quote by doing just that:

I am very handy with my advice and then when anybody appears to be following it, I get frantic. . . .Don't [write] anything that you are not interested in. . . . start simply with a character or anything that you can make come alive. When you have a character he will create his own situation and his situation will suggest some kind of resolution as you get into it. Wouldn't it be better for you to discover a meaning in what you write than to impose one?

Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor
selected and edited by Sally Fitzgerald (1979)