I agree with all of these, though the write-every-day advice is perhaps over the top. Taking off a holiday or giving yourself a break between projects makes sense. Often when I wrap up a novel, I do write the next day, but on some smaller project that I've been putting off -- an essay, an intro, a short story.
One thing King has said about writing that I disagree with -- make that strongly disagree with -- is to avoid adverbs. Overusing adverbs may be bad, but I have never understood the notion of denying yourself a writing tool. Anyway, King uses adverbs all the time. Even Leonard uses them, no matter what he says.
Not a writer of fiction, and some of this does not apply well to academic writing(which is most of what I've done--single sentence paragraphs, ah, not so much). But is all seems pretty sensible to me.
I wish I could like his fiction more than I do--he seems like such a genuinely nice and decent person, I feel I should enjoy his novels (the ones I've tried) more than I have. But his fiction is just not for me (although I enjoy his non-fiction) and wishin' ain't gonna change that.
Deb, he's a man of taste, intelligence and talent...and he's as lazy as a prolific writer trying to follow his guidelines above can be. At least most of the tome. Whether it's the derivative nature of most of his concepts, plots, etc., or the very frequent sloppiness of his prose and sometimes his thought about the stories he's telling.
"Most of the tome" is a accurate slip, because his fiction tends to be in enormous tomes. What I couldn't get over was the sloppy characters and how they do inexplicable things in the service of the plot. I know I've shared this before, but in LISEY'S STORY Lisey finds a dead cat in her mailbox--and is "so angry she forgets to call the police." Would you be either angry or forgetful in that circumstance? It seems to me that your first instinct would be to call the police, but that wasn't convenient to the plot, so....
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I agree with all of these, though the write-every-day advice is perhaps over the top. Taking off a holiday or giving yourself a break between projects makes sense. Often when I wrap up a novel, I do write the next day, but on some smaller project that I've been putting off -- an essay, an intro, a short story.
One thing King has said about writing that I disagree with -- make that strongly disagree with -- is to avoid adverbs. Overusing adverbs may be bad, but I have never understood the notion of denying yourself a writing tool. Anyway, King uses adverbs all the time. Even Leonard uses them, no matter what he says.
Not a writer of fiction, and some of this does not apply well to academic writing(which is most of what I've done--single sentence paragraphs, ah, not so much). But is all seems pretty sensible to me.
I agree about the adverbs, Al. I don't know who passed the law against them, but I like breaking the law now and then.
And yet...if it was as "simple" as the piece implies, wouldn't everyone do it?
I wish I could like his fiction more than I do--he seems like such a genuinely nice and decent person, I feel I should enjoy his novels (the ones I've tried) more than I have. But his fiction is just not for me (although I enjoy his non-fiction) and wishin' ain't gonna change that.
Deb, he's a man of taste, intelligence and talent...and he's as lazy as a prolific writer trying to follow his guidelines above can be. At least most of the tome. Whether it's the derivative nature of most of his concepts, plots, etc., or the very frequent sloppiness of his prose and sometimes his thought about the stories he's telling.
"Most of the tome" is a accurate slip, because his fiction tends to be in enormous tomes. What I couldn't get over was the sloppy characters and how they do inexplicable things in the service of the plot. I know I've shared this before, but in LISEY'S STORY Lisey finds a dead cat in her mailbox--and is "so angry she forgets to call the police." Would you be either angry or forgetful in that circumstance? It seems to me that your first instinct would be to call the police, but that wasn't convenient to the plot, so....
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