I’ve often heard people who give writing advice say “don’t write a prologue.” If I were someone qualified to give writing advice, I’d say, “don’t write a bad prologue.” The prologue at the beginning of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind is a beautiful and necessary part of the novel. If The Name of … Continue reading On beginnings: The prologue to The Name of the Wind
On Beginnings: Stephen King’s first lines
Stephen King has some wonderful first lines, that both hook the reader and skillfully capture the essence of the book. There's a lot to be learned from his technique. Here are four of my favorites. The Gunslinger The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. This sentence sets up the story’s … Continue reading On Beginnings: Stephen King’s first lines
On beginnings: The Windup Girl and constructed chaos
The beginning of any novel is critically important, and it can be daunting to write one. In this series on beginnings, I’m going to dissect some of my favorite opening lines and passages, and hopefully find some strategies for starting a book. One of the best beginnings I’ve ever read is from The Windup Girl … Continue reading On beginnings: The Windup Girl and constructed chaos
How to research your novel (without being bored to death)
Browsing through Wikipedia is a good start to any research endeavor, but reading about the chemical structure of heroin or the extensive history of the revolver can get a little dry. (Yes, I write crime fiction.) To fully flesh out your knowledge, it’s important to branch out. The best way to do that is to … Continue reading How to research your novel (without being bored to death)
on reading and writing
How to write a query in six easy steps
Welcome to the third part of my series of articles on literary agents. Over the last few weeks I've talked about finding literary agents and researching them. Once you've got a few likely names, it's time to write that query. Here is a very basic overview of the six steps to a successful query for your … Continue reading How to write a query in six easy steps
on intuition
on fiction
How to research a literary agent
Now that you’ve read the first post in this series about querying literary agents and gone through the databases I mentioned, it’s time to take that list of likely names and get to know each one better. Here are a few places to start... Agency website: The literary agent’s agency website is the place to … Continue reading How to research a literary agent
How not to write a query letter
The Beatles must have gotten the worst querying advice ever!
Sarah Kay Moll 