A Writer's Moment: It's a discipline 'you have to love'

A Writer's Moment: It's a discipline 'you have to love':   “ Writing is sweat and drudgery most of the time. And you have to love it in order to endure the solitude and the discipline.”  – Peter Be...

It's a discipline 'you have to love'

 

“Writing is sweat and drudgery most of the time. And you have to love it in order to endure the solitude and the discipline.” – Peter Benchley

 

Born in New York City on May 8, 1940 Benchley (who died in 2006) wrote the novel Jaws, subsequently made into a blockbuster movie by Steven Spielberg, who said he initially found many of the characters unsympathetic and actually wanted the shark to win. 

 

Benchley came from a writing legacy, his grandfather Robert being one of the founders of the famed writing group known as the Algonquin Round Table.  But Peter struggled to get his own foot in the publishing door and nearly decided against it.  He had little early success and was just doing part-time freelance writing when he pitched the idea for Jaws as “one final attempt to stay alive as a writer.” And the rest, as the saying goes . . .

Released in 1974, Jaws was at or near the top of the New York Times bestseller list for 44 weeks and has been continuously in print ever since.   While he wrote a couple more bestselling novels, including The Deep (also adapted as a movie), he had more success as a screenwriter (11 movie adaptations) and writing about conservation.   His book Ocean Planet: Writings and Images of the Sea is considered one of the definitive works on the topic.  Today, the annual Peter Benchley Ocean Awards are awarded to recognize conservation efforts on behalf of the world's oceans.  

 

“The ocean is the only alien and potentially hostile environment on the planet into which we tend to venture without thinking about the animals that live there, how they behave, how they support themselves, and how they perceive us,” he said.  “Without the oceans, there would be no life on earth.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The keys to writing success'

A Writer's Moment: 'The keys to writing success':   “If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what...

'The keys to writing success'

 

“If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say” – Jeffery Deaver

 

Born in Glen Elyn, Illinois on this date in 1950 Deaver is one of America’s premiere mystery/crime writers having earned most of the top awards in the genre and making almost every major bestseller list around the globe.  A lawyer, too (he graduated from Fordham Law and was in the profession before writing), he’s written 50 novels and 5 collections of short stories.  His “Colter Shaw” stories – the latest being 2025’s South of Nowhere – are the basis for the hit TV series Tracker.

 

Among his many awards are a Nero Wolfe and three Ellery Queen Reader's Awards for Best Short Story and Best Novel of the Year.  And Colter Shaw notwithstanding, Deaver's most popular books feature Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic detective, and NYPD Detective Amelia Sachs.  His books The Devil’s Teardrop, which first introduced Rhyme, and The Bone Collector, first in the Rhyme series, also were popular television movies.  His newest The Collateral Heart is just out in both text and audio versions

 

“My books are primarily plot driven,” he said, “but the best plot in the world is useless if you don’t populate them with characters that readers can care about.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the real art of writing success'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the real art of writing success':   “The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extraordinary things. To use the lang...

'It's the real art of writing success'

 

“The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extraordinary things. To use the language that we all use and to make amazing things occur.” –  Graham Swift

 

Born on this date in London in 1949, Swift is considered one of the most important contemporary British writers.  His first novel, The Sweet Shop Owner, was published in 1980, and his subsequent works have won much praise and many awards. Waterland, in particular, was one of the finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize.   He’s had three books – Waterland, Last Orders, and Mothering Sunday – made into well-received movies (both at the box office and by critics). 

 

He’s now authored 11 novels, 1 nonfiction book and 3 collections of short stories, the most recent 2025’s Twelve Postwar Tales.

 

A meticulous and deliberate writer, Swift decries those who say he writes too slow.

 

“It can be dismaying . . . for a novelist to compare the slowness of the writing with the speed of the reading,” he said.  “Novels are read in a matter of days, even hours.  A writer may labor for weeks over a particular passage that will have its effect on a reader for an instant - and that effect may be subliminal or barely noticed.”

A Writer's Moment: 'expanding on the power of narrative'

A Writer's Moment: 'expanding on the power of narrative':   “As a writer and as a reader, I really believe in the power of narrative to allow us ways to experience life beyond our own; ways to refle...