“Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts - including my own - where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: “This is where the novel should actually start.” A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it.” FeelsShouldTwoCharacterStoriesMovingMy OwnNovelCuttingCrazyInformationEmotionalHugeAmountSceneIncludingDetailsAttachmentFadesChaptersManuscriptsLess Is MoreSmall Details Author:Sarah Waters
“The Da Vinci Code may well be the only novel ever written that begins with the word 'renowned'... I think what enabled the first word to tip me off that I was about to spend a number of hours in the company of one of the worst prose stylists in the history of literature was this. Putting curriculum vitae details into complex modifiers on proper names or definite descriptions is what you do in journalistic stories about deaths; you just don't do it in describing an event in a narrative... Why did I keep reading? Because London Heathrow is a long way from San Francisco International.” ThinkingWayFirstsWellsMayLongBookStoriesReadingLiteratureNamesLanguageHoursNumbersCompanyNovelWrittenWorstEventsComplexesInternationalDetailsLondonNarrativeCodeProseDescriptionDefiniteLong WaySan FranciscoDescribingCurriculumStylistJournalisticRenownedDa Vinci Code Author:Geoffrey K. Pullum
“Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself. Which calls for details; any good lie does.” WritingTryingDoeStoriesLyingNovelDetailsUntrueTrue StoryBelievableGood Lies Author:Anne Tyler
“I think the novel is essentially a comic form (tragedy is for the theatre), not meaning by that full of jokes, but that it is about the absurd detail of human life, the way in which one cannot fully understand what is happening. Life is muddle and jumble and ends inconclusively, and when this is presented with great comic art the sorrows of human life can be truthfully conveyed; one is moved by the spectacle, and feels that something truthful has been told in a magic way.” ThinkingWayFeelsHumansHas BeensArtEndsFormLife IsNovelMagicSorrowHappeningsJokesTragedyMovedDetailsTheatreAbsurdComicHuman LifeTruthfulBeing TruthfulMuddleComic Art Author:Iris Murdoch
“I have rarely read a more wonderful book than To Win Her Favor by Tamera Alexander. Rich with historical detail and fully developed characters, this novel held me spellbound until the last page. If you read one historical novel this year, make it To Win Her Favor. It will linger with you long after the last page.” IfsYearsLongBookCharacterLastsWinningNovelRichWonderfulPagesHistoricalDetailsFavorsHistorical Novels Author:Colleen Coble
“Intricately plotted, beautifully paced, The Music of the Spheres is an elegant historical novel rich in detail, at times Dickensian in its description of London. Elizabeth Redfern has made an exciting debut.” MadeNovelRichExcitingHistoricalDetailsLondonDescriptionSpheresElegantDebutHistorical Novels Author:Martha Grimes
“After the first shock of recognition - a sudden sense of "this is what I'm going to write" - the novel starts to breed by itself; the process goes on solely in the mind, not on paper. I feel a kind of gentle development, an uncurling inside, and I know that the details are there already, that in fact I would see them plainly if I looked closer, but I prefer to wait until what is loosely called inspiration has completed the task for me.” IfsKnowsFeelsWritingMindFirstsKindFactsInspirationWaitingProcessNovelGoes OnDevelopmentPaperTasksDetailsRecognitionGentleShock Author:Vladimir Nabokov
“Writing a novel is a lot like directing a movie because you are creating a world and a tone, you are creating a large canvas and all the details.” WorldWritingNovelCreatingDetailsToneCanvas Author:Stephen Chbosky
“Your interviews or blog posts or whatever are less supplements to your novel than part of it. I'm not private, but I believe in literary form - I'll use my life as material for art (I don't know how not to do this) and I'll use art as a way of exploring that passage of life into art and vice versa, but that's not the same thing as thinking that any of the details of my life are interesting or relevant on their own.” ThinkingKnowsWayBelieveArtUseFormI BelieveInterestingNovelKnow HowMaterialsVicesDetailsI Believe InPostsInterviewsPassagesRelevantExploringBlogsVice VersaSupplements Author:Ben Lerner
“Cory Doctorow is a fast and furious storyteller who gets all the details of alternate reality gaming right, while offering a startling, new vision of how these games might play out in the high-stakes context of a terrorist attack. Little Brother is a brilliant novel with a bold argument: hackers and gamers might just be our country's best hope for the future.” LittlesCountryPlayRealityMightGamesVisionNovelBrotherArgumentDetailsBrilliantTerroristOur CountryStakesOfferingStorytellerFuriousGamerGamingHoping For The BestTerrorist AttacksHackersHope For The FutureLittle BrotherNew VisionAlternate Realities Author:Jane McGonigal