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Category Archives: Reader Friday
Reader Friday: Which angels are you wrestling in your writing?
A famous author once said that as we improve our skills and craft as writers, “We begin wrestling with stronger angels.”
Which angel(s) are you currently wrestling with in your work?
Note: If anyone knows the name of the author that gave that quote, let us know his name in the comments. Google search is being absolutely no help this morning.
Reader Friday: Open Forum on Books and Publishing
Reader Friday: The Price is Right, Or Is It?
The pricing of ebooks is fodder for much discussion these days. I recently read one self-publishing advocate who says a strategy to pursue is writing scads of short stories and pricing them at $2.99 each. Unless your name is Stephen King, I’m not sure I would agree. Since full-length novels can be had for 99 cents and $2.99, wouldn’t most people think that a short story at $2.99 is too pricey? Worse, if the title is not clearly labeled “short story” and they get it and finish it in ten minutes, wouldn’t there be some blowback?
Maybe I’m wrong. So I’m throwing it open for a little market research. How do you readers feel about $2.99 for a short story?
Reader Friday: Why the Flops?
Looks like Disney’s $259 million reboot of The Lone Ranger is headed for Flop City. It follows another major disappointment, Sony’s $150 million White House Down. What do you suppose is going wrong?
On the positive side, what recent movies do you recommend?
Reader Friday: Bookstores
Reader Friday: How Far From Yourself Can You Go?
This is a cartoon from a 1930s edition of Writer’s Digest. What is it saying? Since it is not “writing what you know,” it’s something else entirely.
Today, discuss how far you think a writer can reasonably go, away from his or her own life. What are the dangers? The rewards?
How far away have you ever gone? How’d that work out for you?
How Much Does Style Matter?
You may have heard of a fellow named Dan Brown. He’s written a few novels. He may break out soon. His latest,
Infeno, just hit with a 4 million hardcover first printing. So yeah, the kid may make some dough.
His writing style has been attacked and parodied, as in this from The Telegraph:
The critics said his writing was clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive…They said his prose was swamped in a sea of mixed metaphors.
So here is today’s Reader Friday question: How much does style matter? Dan Brown weaves the kind of story that people absolutely lap up on the beach or at Starbucks, or while listening to their iPods as they jog. Sure, his style is not going to win any awards, but so what?
Or is there a what to consider?
Reader Friday: Have You Ever Wanted To. . .?
Mr. Harlan Ellison, a writer who has never been known as a shrinking violet, once had a slight disagreement with his publisher. That incident is recounted here.
Tell us, have you ever wanted to react just that way? What were the circumstances? How did you handle it? What would you counsel a young writer regarding when to be, er, demonstrable in his or her ire?
Reader Friday: Get Creative
Time to get creative. I’m going to give you two items, one is a character and the other is a thing. When you put them together, what picture pops up in your head? Write it down. Then write a segment of a scene, 150 words or less, from the picture you got. Don’t look at any comments until you do, then post your results! It’ll be a good lesson in how different writers handle the same idea in unique fashion.
Today’s combo: romance writer & red wine