In our last blog, we talked about the importance of learning to show Using an example from John Le Carre’s THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD we attempted to show what it means to show in writing. Most books in their simplest form are a series of scenes that show the action of […]
Show don’t tell is an admonition often given to novice writers and with good reason. There is a tendency to explain, and mostly the explaining has to do with what is going on inside a character’s head. Telling how a character feels will bring the action down every time. Here is an example: He was […]
When our book club discussed Elizabeth Strout’s OLIVE KITTERIDGE, the talk centered on whether the eponymous character, Olive Kitteridge, was likeable, whether her marriage was healthy, whether she abused her child and whether she was really a good teacher and member of her community. Roughly half the members liked Kitteridge; half did not. What is […]
Charles Dickens may be one of the most wordy authors in the English language in the sense that he was prolific, creating something like 20 novels, four short story collections and nine volumes of nonfiction, poetry and plays. He wrote a lot of words. But interestingly, allowing for Victorian style, his prose was economical. Here […]
We recently wrote a query letter for a client. When we sent it to her, we explained that she could send it exclusively to a single literary agent or submit it to multiple agents. The next day she e-mailed to say that she had sent her query to almost 90 agents. So much for exclusivity! […]
After writing numerous query letters on behalf of our clients, here are some conclusions we have reached about what works: 1) A query should titillate agents, rather than leave them sated. Give them just enough to provoke interest and make them hungry to learn more. 2) Unless the book is non fiction and steeped in […]
Rounding out a memorial Week of Salinger, there is this which reminds us why writers are special. “‘Are you a poet?’ he asked. ‘A poet?’ Nicholson said. ‘Lord, no. Alas, no. Why do you ask?’ ‘I don’t know. Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their emotions in things that have […]
If you loved the book, would you also love the author? We think J.D. Dalinger would say no.
We probably have a somewhat nuanced view since we work with writers, but it does seem like everybody is writing these days and nobody’s reading. For sure, the number of people reading books is shrinking. And who really reads all these blogs and other material that is posted on the Net? The author J.D. Salinger, […]