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Tag Archives: tips for writers

Haruki Murakami’s “1Q84″: Disrespecting the Reader

Book cover for 1Q84.

Author’s Note: This Ras-curated post was written by his good friend Howard Cincotta, a fiction writer and freelancer for all seasons. Cincotta read 1Q84 while recovering from outpatient surgery. Cincotta’s most recent articles – on green roofs and Toastmasters International – … Read more »

What’s Right and What’s Wrong with “The Sense of an Ending”

Book jacket of The Sense of an Ending.

Julian Barnes’s novella The Sense of an Ending has been the hot book in High Lit circles for the past couple of months.  It won the 2011 Booker Prize for the best novel in English, a reliable indicator of quality … Read more »

Tips for Writers: Characters from Life

Photo of Mother and daughter authors, Carolyn See and Lisa See.

“This book is for the timid, forlorn, and clueless,” Carolyn See says in her introduction to Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and other Dreamers (2002). It’s good stuff. See writes in a down-to-earth way peppered with examples from … Read more »

Tips for Writers: Point of View

photo of novelist John Updike.

In my last post I made a distinction between the level of detail expected from writers in the Low Lit Tradition versus those who aspire to High Lit.. Robert B. Parker, master of Low Lit, handles character entrances like a … Read more »

Tips for Writers: Level of Detail

Photo of Robert B. Parker, the late master of Low Lit.

One of the hardest problems for rookie writers is mastering an appropriate level of detail. For most beginners, the chore is learning how to build your imaginative muscles to the point where you can create any convincing detail at all. … Read more »

Tips for Writers: Entrances

Photo of Mia Farrow as Daisy in the movie version.

Any actor will tell you that entrances are important in life and on stage, but this seems equally true in fiction. So important that centuries back the Old Master novelists developed some standard ways to present a character to readers. … Read more »