“I never think about genre when I work. I've written fantasy, science fiction, supernatural fiction, and am now working on a suspense novel. Genres are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers known where to shelve a book.” ThinkingBookHelpingFictionKnownFantasyNovelWrittenToolsScience FictionMarketingSuspenseGenreBooksellersSuspense Novels Author:Elizabeth Hand
“I think the internet is a great marketing tool--but marketing is not my job. I'm a writer. My job is to write novels.” ThinkingWritingJobsNovelInternetToolsMarketingGreat Marketing Author:Bentley Little
“[My wife] liked to collect old encyclopedias from second-hand bookstores, and at one point we had eight of them. When I wrote my first historical novel---back in 1980, before I was online---I used them often as a research tool. For instance, I learned that the Bastille was either 90 feet high or 100 feet or 120 feet. This led me to formulate Wilson's 22nd Law: 'Certitude belongs exclusively to those who only look in one encyclopedia.'” FirstsLooksHandsLawUsedNovelWifeFeetResearchToolsHistoricalEightMy WifeInstanceOnlineBookstoresWilsonEncyclopediaSecond HandCertitudeHistorical NovelsBastille Author:Robert Anton Wilson
“Rather than a teaching tool, I think a novel is more of a witnessing entity. A witnessing entity? What is that? I just want the reader to step in and experience it as a story.” ThinkingWantStoriesStepsNovelTeachingReaderToolsEntity Author:Lorrie Moore
“For being able to use language was a critical skill that could carry one far. One could use it professionally, as a crafter of everything from political speeches to modern novels. One could use it personally, as a tool of discovery or a means of staying connected to others. One could use it as an outlet that would feed the artistic spirit of the creator, which existed in everyone.” MeanUseAblePoliticalSpiritLanguageNovelModernSkillsSpeechDiscoveryToolsCreatorConnectedCriticalArtisticStayingOutletsPolitical SpeechesModern NovelCrafters Author:Elizabeth George
“Be critical of but not brutal with your writing. If something isn't essential, get rid of it. Remember that good dialogue can serve a whole passel of purposes in your novel, and to overlook one of them is to overlook one of the tools of the craft. Like hitting a nail with a screwdriver, if you know what I mean.” IfsKnowsWritingMeanWholeRememberPurposeNovelEssentialsToolsCriticalDialogueCraftsBrutalHittingNailsScrewdrivers Author:Elizabeth George
“In a novel, language is your principal tool, you try to build pictures in the mind of the reader. When you write a screenplay, the language is just a transition, the final goal is a picture on the screen, it's the only thing the audience sees.” WritingTryingMindLanguageGoalNovelAudienceReaderToolsFinalsScreensTransitionPrincipalScreenplays Author:Philippe Claudel
“Almost any tale of our doings is comic. We are bottomlessly comic to each other. Even the most adored and beloved person is comic to his lover. The novel is a comic form. Language is a comic form, and makes jokes in its sleep. God, if He existed, would laugh at His creation. Yet it is also the case that life is horrible, without metaphysical sense, wrecked by chance, pain and the close prospect of death. Out of this is born irony, our dangerous and necessary tool.” IfsPersonsPainFormLife IsLanguageBornChanceSleepCasesNovelLaughingDangerousCreationLoversJokesToolsHorribleTalesComicIronyBelovedMetaphysicalDoingsBeloved Person Book:The Black Prince Source: The Black Prince
“In the years since The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, Voinovich has sharpened his satire, and Monumental Propaganda is a novel that slashes and rips -- but not on every page. He expands his narrative to accommodate shrewd philosophy and inventive portraiture, a very amusing disquisition on Soviet latrines and a number of outlandish plot developments. In his translation, Andrew Bromfield deftly shifts his tone and tools as required, remaining true to Voinovich's Vonnegut-like playfulness and appreciation of the absurd.” YearsPhilosophyNumbersNovelAdventureDevelopmentPagesToolsExtraordinaryAppreciationAbsurdNarrativePropagandaTonePlotSatireSovietTranslationsRipAmusingAccommodateAndrewPlayfulnessPortraitureOutlandish Author:Ken Kalfus
“Often touching . . . Monumental Propaganda is a novel that slashes and rips . . . In his translation, Andrew Bromfield deftly shifts his tone and tools as required, remaining true to Voinovich's Vonnegut-like playfulness and appreciation of the absurb.” NovelToolsAppreciationPropagandaToneTouchingTranslationsRipAndrewPlayfulness Author:Ken Kalfus
“Radio, or at least the kind of radio we're proposing to do, can cut through that. It can reach people who would otherwise never hear your work, and of course I find that very notion inspiring. Radio stories are powerful because the human voice is powerful. It has been and will continue to be the most basic element of storytelling. As a novelist (and I should note that working my novel is the first thing I do in the morning and the very last thing I do before I sleep), shifting into this new medium is entirely logical. It's still narrative, only with different tools.” PeopleShouldFirstsHumansKindHas BeensStillsDifferentStoriesLastsCoursesVoiceSleepPowerfulMorningNovelCuttingElementsToolsNotesNotionRadioStorytellingMediumsNarrativeNovelistsLogicalShiftingHuman Voice Author:Daniel Alarcon