Ask the Author: Melanie Sumner
Answered Questions (6)
Melanie Sumner
For How to Write a Novel (coming out June 2015 with Vintage), I sat down to write a novel set in Alaska, for which I've done extensive research. I thought, as I always do, how does one actually go about writing a novel? Then this book came out.
Melanie Sumner
1. I read a really, really good book.
2. Something bothers me.
3. My mind wanders.
4. I write something down.
5. I rewrite it.
2. Something bothers me.
3. My mind wanders.
4. I write something down.
5. I rewrite it.
Melanie Sumner
Today, I scratched out the outline for a short story collection on Scrivener. I am also doing final revisions for How to Write a Novel, coming out with Vintage in June 2015. See below:
Whiting Award-winning author Melanie Sumner’s HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL, a satirical portrait of a stressed-out modern family, narrated by a precocious twelve-year-old as she writes her first novel, pitched as Bee from Where’d You Go, Bernadette meets Adrian Mole, to Andrea Robinson at Vintage, by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary Services.
Whiting Award-winning author Melanie Sumner’s HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL, a satirical portrait of a stressed-out modern family, narrated by a precocious twelve-year-old as she writes her first novel, pitched as Bee from Where’d You Go, Bernadette meets Adrian Mole, to Andrea Robinson at Vintage, by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary Services.
Melanie Sumner
Read really good books. Study grammar. Throw stuff out in revision. If you want to, you can keep it in a file labeled, "Boneyard."
So much of writing is about finishing the damn thing. The rest is about revision.
So much of writing is about finishing the damn thing. The rest is about revision.
Melanie Sumner
Tape paper all over the walls and scribble crazily. Or skip the paper. Be bad. This keeps you from taking yourself too seriously, which is always an imagination-killer.
Melanie Sumner
It's really, really fun to write fiction. Except when it's not. Then it's really really fun again.
Also, it works as a moral compass, offering the kind of spiritual reflection that a marriage can provide. You cannot escape the mirror.
Also, it works as a moral compass, offering the kind of spiritual reflection that a marriage can provide. You cannot escape the mirror.
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