It’s often said that everyone has a book inside him or her — but how do you plot it? In Making Story, edited by the Edgar- and Macavity-nominated author Timothy Hallinan, twenty-one novelists–who have written more than 100 books among them and sold hundreds of thousands of copies–talk about how they go about turning an idea into a plot, and a plot into a book. Making Storyoffers practical, experience-based advice from people who have repeatedly sat down to write a good book and succeeded in doing just that. The writers who will help you to create your story are Michael Stanley, Kelli Stanley, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Jeffrey Siger, Zoe Sharp, Stephen Jay Schwartz, Mike Orenduff, Debbi Mack, Wendy Hornsby, Gar Anthony Haywood, Timothy Hallinan, Leighton Gage, Jeremy Duns, Bill Crider, Meredith Cole, Jeffrey Cohen, Rebecca Cantrell, Rachel Brady, Lisa Brackmann, Cara Black, and Brett Battles. This is an indispensable book for aspiring authors and the first in a series, each focusing on a different writing challenge.
Category Archives: On writing
It’s a Book!
Adapted from an earlier post on Getitwrite, the Perseverance Press author blog
Wendy Hornsby
You write a book and send it off. Sometime later the typescript comes back from the editor decorated with blue pencil marks, with a page of two of notes with issues and questions to please address. You make some changes, fix some errors, and send it back. Again, sometime later, page proofs show up for a last proofread and an last chance to fix gaffes. When you slip the proofs into a mailer and send them off this time, your work on the manuscript is finished. By that time you are or should be well into the next book, and the completed book moves to the back of your mind. Continue reading