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Writing

Worried about Copyright? You’re Wasting Your Time

September 9, 2019

book, copyright, literature, marketing, meaning

Part of evolving as a writer (and a person) is to learn from silly past mistakes. Another way to learn, more subtle, is to learn from your silly past preconceptions. Writers worried about copyright is a great such example.

Just in case it’s not clear, let me be explicit about it. If you’re worried about copyright – and authors typically worry about someone stealing their idea – you’re wasting your time. Completely.

There are several factors behind this. You might be familiar with some, not so with others. Motivation for this article came after someone in an online discussion (elsewhere, not on Home for Fiction), asked for help with their novel, but was reluctant to supply information. Why? You guessed it: they were afraid others (me?!) would steal their idea.

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Can Good Writing Be Taught?

August 23, 2019

Writing

excellence, literature, writing

One of the key themes in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is to which extent our morality is a product of our environment. Are you born bad, or do you become? This might sound like an irrelevant point for our topic – can good writing be taught? – but in fact it’s directly relevant.

The reason? Instead of asking, can good writing be taught, we can rephrase the question and wonder: Are you born a good writer, or can you become one?

Want yet a third reformulation of the same question? Is good writing a matter of talent or skill (that can be practiced and taught)?

Obviously enough, this is a critical thing to know. If good writing cannot be taught – in other words, if you are only born a good writer – then you either have it or you don’t. In such a framework, someone who is not born with the talent, cannot be a good author.

If this sounds a bit too peculiar, and you resist it, your instincts are right. However, the opposite isn’t quite true either. There is such a thing as talent in writing, though probably not in the way you expect. Ah, how wonderful… There are never any simple answers, are there?

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How to Write Vivid Descriptions for Your Novel

August 7, 2019

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

art, descriptions, fiction, literature, meaning, writing

When I was a young(er) and stupid(er) author, I thought I needed to write long, elaborate descriptions of my settings. I read books where writers spent three pages on describing a wall, and I thought that’s how you write vivid descriptions.

Only much later, as I became more experienced, did I realize the truth: To write vivid descriptions that actually offer added value to your novel, you shouldn’t focus on wordy details. Indeed, more often than not, I’d advise against it.

But that’s not the end of the story, either. And so, with today’s post, I want to share some of my experience and offer you a tip or two about how to describe the setting of your novel in a way that does your story justice.

How to Write Vivid Descriptions — If you want to write vivid descriptions, focus **neither** on lengthy, detailed depictions, **nor** on fancy words

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