This Year You Write Your Novel

by Walter Mosley

Overview

"A straightforward, friendly guide for aspiring writers" (Los Angeles Times): No more excuses. With award-winning author Walter Mosley as your guide, you can write a novel now.

"Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls," bestselling novelist Walter Mosley advises. In this invaluable book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish their novel in one year.

Intended as both inspiration and instruction, this book provides the tools to turn out a first draft painlessly and then revise it into something finer. Mosley teaches you how to:

• Create a daily writing regimen to fit any writer's needs — and how to stick to it.
• Determine the narrative voice that's right for every writer's style.
• Hook readers with dynamic characters.
• Get past those first challenging sentences and into the heart of a story.
• And much more.

"No-nonsense advice that is sure to set beginning writers along the righteous path to real authorhood." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316065498
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	01/08/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	258,163
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.26(d)

About the Author

Walter Mosley is one of America's most celebrated and beloved writers. A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, he has won numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA's Lifetime Achievement Award, and several NAACP Image Awards. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His short fiction has appeared in a wide array of publications, including The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Playboy, and his nonfiction has been published in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and The Nation. He is the author of Down the River unto the Sea. He lives in New York City.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

January 12, 1952

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A., Johnson State College

Website:

http://www.waltermosley.com

Table of Contents

Introduction     3
The General Disciplines That Every Writer Needs     7
Writing Every Day     7
Learning How to Write Without Restraint     10
Avoidance, False Starts, and Dead-End Thinking     13
A Final Note About Process     14
The Elements of Fiction     17
The Narrative Voice     17
First-Person Narrative     18
Third-Person Narrative     22
The Omniscient Narrator     25
Final Notes on Narrative Voice     29
Showing and Telling     30
Sensations     34
Emotions     35
The Pedestrian in Fiction     36
Metaphor and Simile     37
Final Note on Showing and Telling     40
Character and Character Development     40
A Final Note on Character Development     47
Story     48
Intuition Versus Structure     51
Engagement     55
Plot     56
Final Thoughts on Plot and Story     61
The Uses of Poetry in Fiction Writing     62
Where to Begin     65
Congratulations     65
First Words     65
TheMidlands of the Novel     69
Research     70
Rewriting, or Editing     73
The First Draft     73
The Second Draft     74
The Many Drafts That Follow     76
The Elements of Rewriting     78
The Nexus of Character, Story, Theme, and Plot     78
The Devil and the Details     81
Repetition     81
Descriptions and Condensation     82
Dialogue     87
A Solitary Exercise     92
Music     93
When Am I Finished Rewriting?     95
Miscellany     97
On Genre     97
A Note on Aesthetics     98
Writing Workshops     99
Literary Organizations, Agents, Publishers...and Getting Published     101
In Summation     103
Index     105

Editorial Reviews

"Walter Mosley has penned a marvelously encouraging and — far more important — useful guide to writing."—San Diego Union-Tribune

From the Publisher

With Mosley as instructor, how can your novel go wrong? Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Sounding like a cross between a favorite teacher and a best friend, narrator Dion Graham captures Mosley’s iconic tone in an audiobook that investigates the creative writing process. Walter Mosley, the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins mysteries, knows whereof he speaks. Mosley’s well-ordered, straightforward “how to” tips offer a safety net for cautious novice writers. The tone overall is educational in that it imparts knowledge and inspirational in that it spurs action. Graham’s delivery is warm, reassuring, and forceful enough to get writers writing. He makes Mosley’s directives—from the absolute necessity of writing every day to the need to edit and rewrite—sound sensible and obvious. Mosley’s little book carries a big message, and Graham delivers it smartly. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2019 - AudioFile

Sounding like a cross between a favorite teacher and a best friend, narrator Dion Graham captures Mosley’s iconic tone in an audiobook that investigates the creative writing process. Walter Mosley, the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins mysteries, knows whereof he speaks. Mosley’s well-ordered, straightforward “how to” tips offer a safety net for cautious novice writers. The tone overall is educational in that it imparts knowledge and inspirational in that it spurs action. Graham’s delivery is warm, reassuring, and forceful enough to get writers writing. He makes Mosley’s directives—from the absolute necessity of writing every day to the need to edit and rewrite—sound sensible and obvious. Mosley’s little book carries a big message, and Graham delivers it smartly. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2019 - AudioFile