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How to Build a Novel
A novel is a house you invite the reader to rent or to buy. How many rooms does it have, and is it welcoming? Are there clear passageways from room to room? How big is the garden? My six-book study shows me drastically different buildings by various contractors/builders/designers. I think of Neverhome as a vast open-air…
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The Big What If
Here again are the six novels I’ve been studying in preparation for finishing the first draft of my own work in progress. 1000 White Women: the Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus God Help the Child, by Toni Morrison Neverhome, by Laird Hunt Summer People, by Marge Piercy The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood…
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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Occasionally, I hear writers say that they don’t read books in their genre for fear that they will be influenced. Horse feathers! Dancers mimic the instructor until they get the moves right. I learned to ride a horse by watching and listening to my trainer. I learned penmanship by copying letters from the model and, believe…
Karen Douglass, Author 