LITERARY REJECTION: YOU’RE NOT ALONE
Here are some quotes from ‘Literary Rejections’: “After 5 years of continual rejection, the writer finally lands a publishing deal: Agatha Christie. Her book sales are now in excess of $2 billion. Only William Shakespeare has sold more.” “The Christopher Little Literary Agency receives 12 publishing rejections in a row for their new client, until the eight-year-old daughter of a Bloomsbury editor demands to read the rest of the book. The editor agrees to publish but advises t
YOUR FIRST NOVEL PAGE
The first page of your novel or memoir has to do some very specific things; it can’t just ‘be’ your first page. You are introducing your story. Remember: when you submit your query and sample pages for an agent to view, that first page could make or break you. Hell, that first paragraph. The truth is, yes, you have to HOOK the reader. I know, I know: A lot of English Lit teachers of the classics will tell you this is some bullshit commercial gimmick to capture the reader and
WRITERS’ FEAR
Hey, for those of you who’ve followed me for a while now—I’ve been doing this blog since early 2013—this is my 100th blog post. Kind of exciting, actually. I mean hey, I’m not Marc Maron, but I’m doing pretty well for myself. Anyway, I wanted to touch base with you guys n’ gals today about writers’ fear. What do I mean by ‘writers’ fear,’ you ask. Well, I mean many things, but mainly the fear of rejection. ’Cause at the end of the day, isn’t that what we’re really, truly, ult
WRITING AS WORK: REVISING, EDITING, REWRITING
[Before I even begin I’d like to give another shout out to my client, Christian Picciolini. Go buy his important, powerful book, “Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead.” (NOW BEING RE-RELEASED DEC 26, 2017 AS WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out) Available on his website (www.christianpicciolini.com), Amazon, and bookstores around the country. The true tale of one of the first neo-Nazis in America who got ou
NOAH LUKEMAN’S “THE FIRST FIVE PAGES”/SHOWING VERSUS TELLING
“It is the writer’s job to show us what his characters are like, not by what he says about them, or what they say about one another, but by their actions. A writer can spend a page telling us his protagonist is a crook, or he can show it in one sentence, by simply describing his taking a twenty-dollar bill from someone’s pocket, and letting the reader judge for himself.” Noah Lukeman, “The First Five Pages,” under the chapter “Showing Versus Telling,” page 119. Noah Lukeman i
