Excerpt from an unpublished novel...
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Bryan Jackson
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willli
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Olas headwax!
Quick critique. Don't refer to fiction when writing fiction, the zorro reference has to go, discribe how he waxed his coveted stash and trimmed it and shaped it and use that action as a foil to foreshadow what is about to happen, rather than bluntly say it as in "six feet under".
I have three children with college degrees in English literature and they are brutal with criticism on anything I write, however brilliant I think I am.
Find someone to read your work and write comments as they read it, ie an editor in the informal sense. You can agree or discard as you like. From what I've read the publishing world is a brutal place for egos, rejection being the norm. However, J.k.Rowling is now a billionaire, imagine how all the idiots who rejected her feel.
Surfboards? Is he hated by the Bra? How bout a piece where you get into their heads? Otherwise ..
Bravo!
Quick critique. Don't refer to fiction when writing fiction, the zorro reference has to go, discribe how he waxed his coveted stash and trimmed it and shaped it and use that action as a foil to foreshadow what is about to happen, rather than bluntly say it as in "six feet under".
I have three children with college degrees in English literature and they are brutal with criticism on anything I write, however brilliant I think I am.
Find someone to read your work and write comments as they read it, ie an editor in the informal sense. You can agree or discard as you like. From what I've read the publishing world is a brutal place for egos, rejection being the norm. However, J.k.Rowling is now a billionaire, imagine how all the idiots who rejected her feel.
Surfboards? Is he hated by the Bra? How bout a piece where you get into their heads? Otherwise ..
Bravo!
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willli
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Know what you mean about literary criticism. Funny but Zorro was one of my childhood heros. I desperately wanted his horse and sword for a whole summer. Of course my kids have no idea who Zorro is.
I read once that you have three paragraphs to sell a novel. If the agent isn't hooked in the first three you write it doesn't matter how brilliant the rest is. I believe the word for unsolicited manuscripts is slush, ie its part of the slush pile that no one wants to read, so .. you have to grab the reader right off. If you get them past the first three para they may actually read the first chapter. If they like that it will be assigned to an editor and a minimal contract offered to the author. Apparently finding a good book agent to represent your interests with publishers is the key, but no first book gets big money. Publishers are keen to dope out which authors are one book wonders and which have created characters that live through many books. Gang violence is sort of old, but right now SURFING, the very thing you know and love is HOT! "Getting published" is a hot button topic in my house, what with all the critics sitting round the table! I'm happy to post here and be done with it.
I read once that you have three paragraphs to sell a novel. If the agent isn't hooked in the first three you write it doesn't matter how brilliant the rest is. I believe the word for unsolicited manuscripts is slush, ie its part of the slush pile that no one wants to read, so .. you have to grab the reader right off. If you get them past the first three para they may actually read the first chapter. If they like that it will be assigned to an editor and a minimal contract offered to the author. Apparently finding a good book agent to represent your interests with publishers is the key, but no first book gets big money. Publishers are keen to dope out which authors are one book wonders and which have created characters that live through many books. Gang violence is sort of old, but right now SURFING, the very thing you know and love is HOT! "Getting published" is a hot button topic in my house, what with all the critics sitting round the table! I'm happy to post here and be done with it.
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hart
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- Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2003 4:46 pm
- Location: Dee Why, Sydney.
Literacy
Haedwex,
Now you ARE doing your homework, aren't you? Remember those demerit points..
How good was willli's 'Gone to the dogs'? Too bloody good..I'd in fact, like to know what his children thought of it..but (with all respect, they probably aren't into pastrami)..and apart from a packet of cigarettes, pastrami was the first thing I ever bought in LA.
And besides from Jackie Gleeson..Zorro was my first bloody US hero!
Oh and one more thing..observation and accuracy is everything..make sure you always spell the name of your mentor (or addressee) correctly..it always helps with the Rottys.
And...keep posting.
Me.
Now you ARE doing your homework, aren't you? Remember those demerit points..
How good was willli's 'Gone to the dogs'? Too bloody good..I'd in fact, like to know what his children thought of it..but (with all respect, they probably aren't into pastrami)..and apart from a packet of cigarettes, pastrami was the first thing I ever bought in LA.
And besides from Jackie Gleeson..Zorro was my first bloody US hero!
Oh and one more thing..observation and accuracy is everything..make sure you always spell the name of your mentor (or addressee) correctly..it always helps with the Rottys.
And...keep posting.
Me.
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Eric Carson
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- Location: Melbourne Florida
Creative Writing 101 Words from Kurt Vonnegut.
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time is wasted.
2. Give the reader at least on character he or she can root for.
3. Ever charactor should want something, even f it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do on of two things-reveal character or advance action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading character, make awful thing happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to pleased just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such a complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time is wasted.
2. Give the reader at least on character he or she can root for.
3. Ever charactor should want something, even f it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do on of two things-reveal character or advance action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading character, make awful thing happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to pleased just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such a complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
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hart
- Legend (Contribution King!)
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- Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2003 4:46 pm
- Location: Dee Why, Sydney.
?
Haedwax,
Sandon Point...and somehow there's a connection to East Coast USA?
I'm sure that some in the 'Gong would like to think so, but in all reality..there can be no connection at all, apart from a preconceived mind set of fraternity.
And it's all about wanting to be something that you're not..but believing that you are.
Bad news tonight about Koby Abberton..read tomorrow's paper.
Bruce.
Sandon Point...and somehow there's a connection to East Coast USA?
I'm sure that some in the 'Gong would like to think so, but in all reality..there can be no connection at all, apart from a preconceived mind set of fraternity.
And it's all about wanting to be something that you're not..but believing that you are.
Bad news tonight about Koby Abberton..read tomorrow's paper.
Bruce.
HW
Nice effort.
In a previous life I was a copywriter, which meant that I had to pare paragraphs down to punchy phrases (sorry). You can tell that I've lost any training I had in the area. Taught me a bit about encountering blunt criticism (CEO says, "This is crap" as he flings it accross the table).
Anyway, there's a guy called Herchell Gordon Lewis http://herschellgordonlewis.com/ who is very impressive in dissecting words and phrases for more punch and in encouraging mere writers to be wordsmiths.
Can't really go past Kurt von for good advice or Salman Rushdie for raw ability. Like KS, it's mostly technique blended with a bit of timing, intuition and natural balance.
Nice effort.
In a previous life I was a copywriter, which meant that I had to pare paragraphs down to punchy phrases (sorry). You can tell that I've lost any training I had in the area. Taught me a bit about encountering blunt criticism (CEO says, "This is crap" as he flings it accross the table).
Anyway, there's a guy called Herchell Gordon Lewis http://herschellgordonlewis.com/ who is very impressive in dissecting words and phrases for more punch and in encouraging mere writers to be wordsmiths.
Can't really go past Kurt von for good advice or Salman Rushdie for raw ability. Like KS, it's mostly technique blended with a bit of timing, intuition and natural balance.