There was a news/current affairs show on American TV in the 1970s in which two guys debated opposite sides of an issue. Lately, I’m finding two sources of advice helpful that seem like opposites.
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Bob Mayer’s The Novel Writer’s Toolkit is one of the most reassuring tomes I’ve ever read about how to tackle the sprawling project of writing a novel. The advice is considerably more specific (good grief, the number of books that have made it into print that tell you “now write the middle”), but the summary is, take a step. Deep breath. Take the next step. The next. Eventually you get to the destination. I have to start chanting my mantra when anyone gets to the parts about hunting down editors and putting together a PR plan, but that’s in the book too, in nice, doable, non-Tolstoy-esque chunks. (more…)
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