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The novelist Kingsley Amis once said, "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one's trousers to the seat of one's chair." Writing a novel may indeed be 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration but we're here to provide you with a little guidance nonetheless. |
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Some writers turn out one a year, but spending three, five or eight years on a book is not unusual.
We asked Mich猫le Roberts and Elliot Perlman, two accomplished but very different novelists, to share their secrets and to offer advice. |
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The importance of the opening lines- You must hook your reader. The tone of the writing should be fresh and distinctive. Create an immediate narrative pull; make the reader want to know "what happens next?".
"Get the reader into the story straight away, and use crisp and unassuming language. Don't make the reader want to reach for the dictionary."
Elliot Perlman
"An effective opening may do many things at once. It might set up the main characters and their relationship, it might describe a setting or a dramatic event, it will probably always introduce key themes."
Mich猫le Roberts
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