A Writer's Moment: So, What's Next?

A Writer's Moment: So, What's Next?: “When I get started each day, I read through and correct the previous day's 2,000 words, then start on the next. As ...

So, What's Next?

“When I get started each day, I read through and correct the previous day's 2,000 words, then start on the next. As I reach that figure, I try to simply stop and not go on until reaching a natural break. If you just stop while you know what you're going to write next, it's easier to get going again the next day.” – Neal Asher

 

Born in England on this date in 1961, Asher has established himself as one of today’s top science fiction writers – something he “sort of inherited” from his parents, both who are educators and science fiction fans.

Although he began writing while still in secondary school, he didn’t turn to it seriously until he was nearly 30, working first as a machinist and machine programmer and then as a full-time gardener before a successful short story got him into writing full time.   Influenced by The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber series, he soon developed his own special setting, the so-called "Polity" universe.   His fast-paced, action-filled stories encompassing many classic science fiction tropes have made him a fan favorite in the genre’.

                                                                          

  

Asher has turned out dozens of books and short stories – many of them award winning – since his debut piece in 1989.   His advice to new writers is to work on developing a regular writing routine (that 2000 daily words mentioned above) and keep an active, inquiring mind.  "For me," he said, "the writing process is the same as the reading process.  I want to know what happens next."

 

 

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Simply 'Extending The Tale'

Yesterday's announcement that Hal Holbrook had died reignited memories of him playing Mark Twain on stage and screen.  During his lifetime, Holbrook portrayed the legendary writer for all or parts of more than 7 decades.

 

Twain was, of course, actually a pen name, created by Samuel Clemens for his writing career, a name he used for about 5 decades.  So Holbrook liked to say that he actually portrayed Twain longer than Clemens did -- although his portrayal was in makeup while Clemens simply was "being himself."

 

Twain-Clemens-Holbrook shared many pithy thoughts about life and writing and I've always liked this one about novel writing, since it fits for almost anyone who's either written a novel or had plans to.  "Writing can be a mystery, rarely easy, almost always satisfying, especially when you are working on a novel.”

 

“A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality, and he trusts he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So he goes to work. To write a novel?  No – that is a thought which comes later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale, a very little tale, a six-page tale. But as it is a tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book. I know about this, because it has happened to me so many times.”

 

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A Writer's Moment: Give That To People

A Writer's Moment: Give That To People:   Been reading the Letters of Ernest Hemingway – amazing writer, whether sending a note to his letter carrier or writing to his mom.  Lette...

Give That To People

 Been reading the Letters of Ernest Hemingway – amazing writer, whether sending a note to his letter carrier or writing to his mom.  Letter writing is an art that I'm afraid is dying in our technological world.

“All good books are alike,” Hemingway said, “in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. 

 

"If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.” 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Always Be Alert To Your Prime

A Writer's Moment: Always Be Alert To Your Prime:   “ Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.   You must then live it to its f...

Always Be Alert To Your Prime

 “Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.  You must then live it to its fullest.” – Muriel Spark

Spark, born this day in 1918, applied that philosophy to an award-winning career as a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.   In 2008 she was named by The Times of London as the 8^th greatest British writer since World War II – a war in which she served as an Intelligence officer for the British army.   It was during her Army years that she realized she had a knack for the clever use of words, and once the war was over she began a serious writing career.   While serving as editor of Poetry Review magazine she authored several critically acclaimed poetry collections and books of criticism before turning to her true calling as a short story writer and novelist.

 

Best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which also was adapted into both a play and a movie, Spark lived in Britain and America before settling in Italy, where she continued writing until her death in 2006.  Shortly before her death, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

  

The author of 22 novels and 21 books of nonfiction and poetry, this mother of three also wrote several best-selling children’s books.  “Parents,” she said, in explaining why, “learn a lot from their children about coping with life.” 

 

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