The Guardian's rather optimistic series contains some good tips for aspiring novelists.
Links of the week October 22 2012 (43)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
29 October 2012
Writing a novel can be daunting. But introducing structure to the process can help you maintain momentum over the course of a month without hampering creativity
Colin Greenwood comes back to Jeremy Greenfield's rebuttal of his own article about the future of publishing.
Jeremy Greenfield, in his piece for Forbes rebutting my Guardian article Ten Ways to Save the Publishing Industry, suggests that I base my arguments on flawed assumptions and that I am condescending towards the book industry. I appreciate Greenfield entering the fray but I don't think the arguments I advanced are significantly undermined by his critique. I'm taking advantage here of his generous offer of space to respond to the points he raised.
Atwood and Alderman were brought together by the Rolex Mentor and Protegé Arts Initiative, an international programme that pairs established artists with emerging artists in the fields of literature, architecture, dance, film, music, theatre, and visual arts for a year of creative collaboration.
Authors Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman are to collaborate on a new fiction series to be published for free on Wattpad. The first three chapters of the book, entitled The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home, are to be posted online today (24th October), with additional instalments going live each Wednesday until 2nd January, for a total of 13 chapters. The two are contributing alternate chapters.
22 October 2012
Toby Clements in the Telegraph says that many novelists would love to write novellas like Ian McEwan, but publishers are only interested in the shorter form if it has the name of a bestselling author attached to it
The Booker-prize winning author Ian McEwan asserted at the weekend that the novella is a superior literary form to the novel. If I could write the perfect novella I would die happy," he said. Anyone who has read his work might have guessed he felt this way. He he started his career in 1975 with a blistering collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites and his first novel was the slender but disproportionately powerful. The Cement Garden which came in at a mere 144 pages - but it is interesting to hear him come out and say it. Not just because he is arguing against the general sense that a thumping great novel is more worthy of of prizes, of being paid for - than a slim volume, but because it is not absolutely clear what he means.