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...

'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 reflect on things that have happened to us and a chance to engage with the world in ways that transcend time and gender and all sorts of things.” – Kim Edwards

 

Born on this date in 1959, Edwards is the author of the bestselling novels The Memory Keeper's Daughter, now translated into 38 languages, and The Lake of Dreams, and the short story collection The Secrets of a Fire King.   Her writing honors include the Whiting Award, the British Book Award, and USA Today's Book of the Year (for Memory Keeper’s Daughter).

 

A graduate of Colgate University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has taught widely in the US and Asia and now makes her teaching home at the University of Kentucky.     

 

In her teaching, Edwards says she often reflects on people’s desire to share stories as one of the things “that make us human.”   “I don’t think we’ll ever lose the desire for people to tell stories or to hear stories or to be entrapped in a beautiful story,” she said.  "It’s simply a part of the human condition."

A Writer's Moment: 'Showing itself as a poem'

A Writer's Moment: 'Showing itself as a poem':   “I just discovered when I was, oh, 12 or 13, that I was very interested in language - and this showed itself as poetry. There was no looki...