Which is the better vantage point for the writer: being an outsider or insider? Do the prophets in the wilderness or the embedded reporters make better writers?
This is an important question for us writers because it’s pertains not only to how you write but to how you should live. Should you seek happiness, the society of others, and success? Or should you seek isolation and individual expression?
We all can recall a favorite book we had as kids or one our own kids want to hear over and over. And over. Thousands of children’s books are published each year. These stories, which set the stage for a lifetime of reading, are often very simple. But publishers say that doesn’t mean they’re easy to write.
I don’t write thrillers. But after The Write Practice team and I talked with Joanna Penn, author and popular blogger of The Creative Penn, I kind of wanted to.
When Joanna agreed to chat with the team and I, she didn’t know we were going to post this here, but the conversation was so fascinating that I wanted you to see it. Fortunately, Joanna was generous enough to let me share it with you.
Tabitha King is her husband’s Ideal Reader. In the past decades she has been the first person in Stephen King’s mind while he sat at his desk transforming his ideas into black on white stories.
Last week I attended a conversation with Nicholas Sparks and local D.C. reporter at the historic Sixth and I. There was a lot of movie talk and name dropping (think, “oh that Ryan and Rachel”), but Sparks was an excellent story teller and engaging speaker. I learned a lot. I would say that the writing tips he shared were the highlight of the experience, but that would be the moment when a girl announced that she had “The Notebook” tattooed on her wrist.
Anyhoo, you want to write like Nicholas Sparks? Below are four tips on how to do it.
I love memoir, always have. Anne Lamott, David Sedaris, Annie Dillard, even Stephen King. There’s something magical about the ability to transform ordinary circumstances into beautiful scenes that teach a deeper truth.
Twenty years ago, it seemed the only people qualified to write memoir were the incredibly famous and the I’m-so-disgustingly-rich-I’d-better-write-a-book elite. The rest of us had better keep our mouths shut… or turn our life’s story into a novel.
But recently, more “normal” people are writing powerful reflections on everyday life. So what’s to stop you and me from joining them?
