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Ian McEwan published his first novel in the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until the late eighties that he began to sneak into the spotlight, with his 1987 novel The Child in Time winning a Whitbread Award and his 1998 novel Amsterdam winning the Man Booker. Then, in 2001, he blew everyone’s minds with Atonement, his most widely known and successful novel. A remarkably prolific writer despite his …
[Read more...] about 5 Ways Ian McEwan Can Help You Improve Your Writing
Once upon a time, in a grand castle in the heart of medieval Europe, there was a fair maiden by the name of… Tiffany. Wait, what? Don’t you mean ‘Guinevere’ or something? Recently, I outlined the literary problems posed by anachronisms – details that don’t belong in a historical period, like an Edwardian courtier getting a call on his iPhone. We discussed how to avoid anachronisms, how to tell …
[Read more...] about How You Can Overcome The Tiffany Problem In Your Writing
If your life is going well, you probably don’t have much firsthand knowledge about being arrested. That can make it difficult to write convincing crime or thriller fiction, but worry not; I’m here to help. If, on the other hand, you’ve pursued legal studies or have been on the receiving end of the long arm of the law, this post isn’t for you. You know enough, friend! For those of you who are …
[Read more...] about What Authors Need To Know About Being Arrested
If you’ve been immersed in the writing life for some time now, you’ve probably heard that it’s important to determine what your characters want. As a species, though, humans seem to have a hard time figuring out what we want, much less what our fictional characters want. With that in mind, let’s borrow a concept from the world of theater – the ‘super objective’ – to see if we can dig deep and find …
[Read more...] about How To Identify A Character’s Super Objective (And Why It Matters)
We live in divisive times. As boundaries between ethnicities, nationalities, social classes, sexualities, and genders are chipped away, the old norms of personal, national, sexual, ethnic, and economic identification and organization must be reevaluated. This is, unsurprisingly, a messy, dramatic, sometimes unpleasant, but ultimately necessary process, and the results impact everything – including …
[Read more...] about What’s A Sensitivity Reader, And Do You Need One?
Naming characters is a mercurial task. Sometimes, characters arrive in your mind wearing a name badge. Sometimes, their name is so hidden that you get the impression they’re only joining your story to lay low. Generally, experimentation is the answer, but I’m not here today to give you tips on where to find names. That’s something we covered in The Definitive Guide To Naming Your Characters, …
[Read more...] about 6 Things Authors Forget When Naming Their Characters
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