Categoría: How to write fiction
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Summoning
It is entirely conceivable that life’s splendour forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from our view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.…
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About visits
Once when I had everything settled about a new apartment in Manhattan— advance rent paid, the lease signed, the movers ready —I was informed that I could not have it because it was a professional apartment. Writers are not professionals, because “their clients do not come to them.” I thought of writing to the Department…
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Sometimes on Sunday
Edna O’Brien, the talented Irish novelist, said in an interview, “Writers are always working. They never stop.” This is the nature of the job of writing, at least of writing fiction. Writers are either developing an idea or they are questing, even if unconsciously, for the germ of an idea. I create things out of…
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A web of words
Words are the prelude, the story is nothing else than the marvelous use of words as tools performed in scene after many practice hours. Thats what a quote of myself would say. However, Im not quotable. Thus, its time to share a Reith lecture. One from 1996. That old! Yes, that old. In the original…
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What to do when a character fucks it up?
You never know when one of these “minor contacts” will have a big impact on a more prominent character.
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How to turn causal into casual in fiction?
To turn causal into casual is like having a mouse at home. You haven’t seen the damn rodent at all but you know it is there. How? Mice leave behind little round thingies. They also leave nibbled cables/fabric/plastic, scraps of food and fiber balls behind them. None of the causal “facts” of our tale will…