Topic: The Meaning of Novels

Question: Why read novels?

Answer: “All traditional novels demonstrate that certain people had certain experiences, and these experiences comment upon life, leaving the reader with some nonfictional conclusion about life. The nonfictional conclusion, or significance, is the theme of the novel.” Robert C. Meredith and John D. Fitzgerald. May 1966.

Comment: Is the novel dead? I don’t think so. Is reading novels no longer relevant to today’s American society? I don’t think so. Do Americans read classic novels? I think, less and less. Perhaps plain-spoken statements like this one on the nature and purpose of the novel will motivate people to read more novels—even traditional novels. Tweets, e-mail, Facebook and reading novels can co-exist. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: How to Write a Good Story

Question: How can you prevent readers from becoming bored with your writing?

Answer: Hallie Burnett. “If a story doesn’t bore you to write, it won’t bore the reader to read. When I begin to feel bored with any part of my writing, I skip to the next point that interests me, intending to come back and fill in—but often I find this unnecessary, and the words I have not written are never missed.” P. 178.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Writing a Good Story

Question: What is the recipe for a good story?

Answer: John Steinbeck: “If there is a magic in story-writing, and I am convinced that there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.” P. 162.

Comment: Someone once said, no one can teach you how to write. They can only tell you how they write.  RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Writing a Novel

Question: What stops you from finishing a novel?

Answer: William Saroyan: “I prefer a pattern of seeing a job  through. In fact, not having such a pattern is what holds many young writers back. Their high standards, the demands they make of themselves, are so great they get a novel about a third done and then give up because they think it’s not good enough. I’ve told every young writer I know to do the job all the way through, even if he thinks it’s no good. Then he’ll have the precedent of having finished a work.”

Comment: Even with shorter pieces like articles, I suggest that writers complete the draft all the way through. Don’t stall by making your grammar perfect. Save that for when you have finished the draft. Otherwise, you might not finish. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Qualifications for Being a Writer

Quote: John D. MacDonald: “Most beginners think that writing is a quick ticket to some kind of celebrity status, to broads and talk shows. Those with that shallow motivation can forget it. Here’s how it goes. Take a person twenty-five years old. If that person has not read a minimum of three books a week since he or she was ten years old, or 2,340 books—comic books not counted—and if he or she is not still reading at that pace, then forget it. If he or she is not willing to commit one million words to paper—ten medium long novels—without much hope of ever selling one word, in the process of learning his trade, then forget it.”

Comment: Sets the bar high. A discouraging view of what it takes to be a writer. Worth thinking about. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.