Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people


writing

A Literary Self-Assessment of my Work

July 11, 2022

I had a bit unorthodox idea: I thought to write a post featuring a literary self-assessment of my work. In particular, I wanted to self-critique all the novels I wrote in the past eight or so years.

This might sound like an incredibly arrogant thing to do, but you can also see it as a teaching point. As you might recall, authors are the sole authority of their work, so you might want to do something similar for your own novels, taking this post as an example.

A literary self-assessment of my work can show you how to do the same for yours, highlighting your evolution as a writer.

literary self-assessment
A literary self-assessment of the seven novels I’ve written in the past eight or so years
(more…)

“Is my Vocabulary Good?” Is a Pointless Question

July 4, 2022

OK, I’m being harsh – and imprecise. Wondering whether your vocabulary is good is a valid concern (at least for beginner or intermediate authors). The “pointless” part of the title is there to offer a quick response: Whether your vocabulary is good or not is not as crucial as you might think.

If you remember my post about writing vivid descriptions, when I was a young and stupid author I thought I needed to write whole pages describing a wall; or a table; or a cup of coffee.

What I didn’t mention in that post – though it’s perhaps implied – is that having a vocabulary that is good plays an integral part in such… strategies.

Whether that’s important or not is something we’ll explore in this post.

vocabulary good
Whether your vocabulary is good or not can affect whether you can offer a three-page description of the sea. The point is, why should you?
(more…)

How to Be “Good Enough” at Writing

June 20, 2022

How can we be good enough at writing? Maybe the question puzzles you. “I don’t want to be just ‘good enough’ at writing”, you might say. “I want to to be excellent! The best!”

And yet, have you ever wondered whether there’s a paradox in a situation where the world wants us all to be “the best”?

Inspiration for this post came after I saw a short documentary about Jiro Ono, arguably the world’s best sushi chef. At the age of 85 (at the time of the documentary, some 10 years ago), he was still working long hours at his diminutive restaurant. In the documentary, we see him and his son, together with some apprentices, working hard to prepare the day’s sushi.

But there are dark clouds under this facade of perfection, that most people fail to notice. Yet, if you’re wondering whether you shouldn’t be just “good enough” at writing because you want to be excellent, such details are worth paying attention, as we’ll see in this post.

good enough writing
Here’s a photo from my 2017 trip to Greece. If being excellent (at anything) involves missing out on experiencing life, I don’t want it. I much rather just be “good enough” – at writing and anything
(more…)