Month: November 2016
Today we start a multi-part series on using your real life in fiction. The example I’m going to use is my own newest novel, The Knowledge. We’ll bounce back and forth from story principles in the abstract to how these concepts were applied in The Knowledge. I’m gonna put up a new post every Mon-Wed-Fri, just for this series. Hopefully we’ll run through Christmas. If you have any questions, please feel free to write them in to the Comments section below. I’ll answer them as best I can. Ready? Let’s start with what was honest-to-God, real-life true in The Knowledge:…
Read MoreToday my newest novel, The Knowledge, goes on sale. (Yeah, that’s me in the photo, taken in the same era in which The Knowledge is set.) You can order The Knowledge right here in a premium “French flap” trade paperback edition not available anywhere else. Also in eBook or an eBook-plus-paperback bundle. There’s a special Holiday Bonus available too. The Knowledge is my (real-life) writer’s coming-of-age story. I’m the protagonist. The internal story is all true. The Knowledge takes place in New York City in 1974, when I was driving a cab and struggling to get my first novel published.…
Read MoreOne of my favorite passages from books about the artist’s life is this one from Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 A.M., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each…
Read MoreI was thinking about Marco Rubio. I’m writing this a few days before the election, so I don’t know if he won his Senate race or not, but let’s assume for the sake of argument that he did. I’ll bet Marco and his family are breathing a major sigh of relief. A Senate term runs six years. The Rubios are now set up till 2023. No worries about fading from the public scene. No shiling for work in the private sector. Marco now, and for the next six years, possesses a position of high status and influence, a guaranteed income,…
Read More(Though this post first ran March 2, 2012, I find I’m still saying the same thing to authors today. What have you done for yourself lately? ~Callie) Dear Author, What have you done for yourself lately? You’ve written a book? Not enough. You’ve had it accepted and printed by a publisher? Not enough. You met with your publisher and came up with a marketing plan. Not enough. What have you done to ensure your book reaches all the people you know will love it? What have you done for yourself lately? You want radio. You want TV. You want print.…
Read MoreI wouldn’t blame anyone who read last week’s post if they thought, “Man, that’s a bit airy-fairy, ain’t it?” Lemme answer by getting even more airy-fairy. Consider this artist’s body of work: Goodbye, Columbus Portnoy’s Complaint My Life as a Man The Professor of Desire The Ghost Writer Zuckerman Unbound The Counterlife Sabbath’s Theater American Pastoral The Human Stain The Plot Against America Indignation The Humbling Clearly there’s a theme here. Without doubt Philip Roth is dealing with a unified, ongoing issue. He’s examining this theme from every angle, playing games with it, turning it inside-out and…
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Start with this War of Art [27-minute] mini-course. It's free. The course's five audio lessons will ground you in the principles and characteristics of the artist's inner battle.