Order WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL here
(also reviewed)
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Order TIME TO MURDER AND CREATE here
Order IN THE MIDST OF DEATH here
Order A STAB IN THE DARK here
Order EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE here
Order WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES here
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Order THE GIRL WITH THE DEEP BLUE EYES here
If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirins, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.
Everyone I know and their mothers are planning to write the next New York Times Bestseller. Outside of my boy Brian Panowich and a handful of souls who took a honest swing at it, I don't know anyone who ever did. Point is, writing fiction is perceived as a frivolous pursuit, but it's pretty hard. Writing manuals will help you get the basics down, but it's a phase that most writers outgrow. I'm sure you've guessed it by now: I'm one of these guys stuck between writing manual and level completion. I love to think I'm above these things, but when I've learned a legendary name like Lawrence Block was launching an updated version of his iconic Writing the Novel, I just had to check it out.
Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel is not a practical, nuts-and-bolts writing manual. It's a philosophical handbook that answers to tough questions whoever wants to write a novel has to eventually face: should you write novels or short stories? How do you get ideas? I've written a novel, now what? That sort of stuff. Lawrence Block delivers his take on writing novels from the widest, most conceptual angle possible, which only a renowned novelist like him could've done successfully. There are some things you can only discuss if everyone around you knows you excel at it. One of the bosses as my job calls it "high level stuff". Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel is a high level writing manual.
As E.L Doctorow famously observed, writing a novel is like driving at night; you can only see as far as the headlights reach, but you can get clear across the country that way. If you know how to start.
Now, for thousand dollars question: did I learn anything from reading Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel? Not a whole lot, but more than I thought I would. I am a bit cynical of writing advice, but Lawrence Block constantly found pearls of wisdom to challenge me. I found his stylistic evaluation of novels against short stories to be quite soothing: any short story writer can testify to the paralyzing fear of not replicating the precision and the originality of their work in a novel, but Block stresses the fundamental differences between novels and short stories in that regards, as successful novels find their rhythm elsewhere because it's impossible to be as precise as original over 200+ pages as you are in a short story.
I've also enjoyed Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel for its memoir value. Lawrence Block keeps stressing that there is not one better path to becoming a successful novelist, so he focuses on his own and I've quite enjoyed the insights on his writing methods and those of his contemporaries. So yeah, it was a little late in the process for me to read Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel, but I would suggest it to any newcomer as a first writing manual. Lawrence Block writes in a very personable tone. It's not intimidating and addresses a lot of fundamental fears about writing, which makes it very pertinent for newcomers seeking guidance.