Every novel ever written is, in a way, a unique expression of a unique mind. However, to crib from George Orwell, some books are more unique than others. With some novels—even bestsellers—you have to dig deep to find that spark of truly unique thought that makes it unlike every other novel out there. Even complex, […]
Novels can be roughly divided into two broad categories. You have your books that simply seek to tell a good story1, and you have your novels that attempt to do something new and unexpected. Every month brings us dozens of books that keep us turning pages with their expert use of tension, twists, and character development, and an […]
You know what’s easy? Writing a big, sprawling, generation-spanning, globe-hopping novel. Sweeping? Sweeping is child’s play, Leo Tolstoy. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you, Ken Follett. You want to really impress me? Write a novel that’s confined to a particular and limited space: a house, a room, a car… a shoebox. In MFA-ese, we call these […]
In Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, Kate Wilhelm wrote, “Great fiction reveals that there is no such thing as a common, everyday uninteresting person. They are all interesting if you learn enough about them to discover who lives behind the facade.” So we asked members of the […]
