Tag: diary of a first novelist
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February 22, 2007 11:58 PM EST --
One of the most common things a new novelist is likely to hear from well- meaning friends and relatives is, “Hey, why don’t you call Oprah
and see if she’ll put you on the show?” . . .
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March 02, 2007 04:17 PM EST --
For the first three years I owned a computer, the phrases most logged into the search engine were “literary agents” and “how to find one.” Occasionally I dropped . . .
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May 04, 2007 12:40 AM EDT --
The first booksigning I did was at the New England Booksellers’ Association. I appeared in the Penguin booth, which gave me a terrific opportunity to meet some of the local and national sales people . . .
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July 19, 2007 10:44 PM EDT --
For a long time while I was in between novels, I saw the world in blog posts and Gather articles. Everything and everyone around me was part of a grand and unpredictable tale that might be written about, . . .
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September 15, 2007 03:47 PM EDT --
The muse and I have struggled mightily this summer. In the spring, things were looking great! I wrote up a synopsis to a new novel and sent it around to a few friends. All agreed (as friends . . .
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April 06, 2007 01:37 AM EDT --
Because writers are essentially people who live and die by the power of imagination, we tend to dream extravagantly, wildly, sometimes impossibly. But that’s all right. Dreams are our task masters . . .
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March 09, 2007 12:58 AM EST --
Call it the fatal question. Ask it too often, or too needily in a relationship and you may eventually end up hearing the response you fear most. It’s a matter of simple psychology. Doubt your own . . .
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March 30, 2007 02:59 AM EDT --
Sometimes I'm embarrassed by the number of how-to-write books I've accumulated in my life, and by how often I still consult them. Shouldn't I have graduated by now? Do I still need to turn . . .
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April 26, 2007 09:27 PM EDT --
Some authors have made crafting a novel around the latest hot topic their particular specialty. The first one who comes to mind is Jodi Picoult. She has written engaging and deeply felt stories about . . .
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July 01, 2007 12:01 AM EDT --
I’ve always believed that no matter what you do for work, whether you’re waitressing, as I did for many years, or teaching truculent adolescents, or delivering the mail, you owe it to yourself . . .
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April 12, 2007 10:54 PM EDT --
In the not so distant past, authors were expected to do two things: 1) lie on the grass in the shade, and stare up at the sky with their hands behind their heads while they dreamed up stories. And 2) . . .
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May 18, 2007 01:26 AM EDT --
One cliche about the writing life says that lots of people want to have written, but few want to actually sit down and write. After conducting my own experiments in creative procrastination for many years, . . .
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June 13, 2007 12:40 AM EDT --
Two weeks ago in New York, I had the privilege of appearing on a panel at the Backspace Conference. It was my first experience at a writing conference, and one I'd recommend to anyone in our solitary . . .
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October 10, 2007 12:46 AM EDT --
In publishing, a false dichotomy has developed between "character-driven novels," often called literary, which means likely to be nominated for prestigious prizes and reviewed in The New York . . .
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November 01, 2007 11:33 PM EDT --
Every year in November, an increasing number of word-intoxicated, aspring novelists, commit to the fun, the madness, the sheer exhilaration of trying to produce a novel in a month. If you're a writer, . . .
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February 08, 2007 01:25 AM EST --
Some of the most gratifying e-mail messages I’ve gotten about my debut novel have been from readers who contacted me to complain. A gratifying complaint? Sounds like an oxymoron, and usually for . . .
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