Charles Todd
CHARLES AND CAROLINE: Writing is both a craft and a talent. And you must work at one as you develop the other. The most important thing is to READ. The more you understand how other writers have dealt with dialog and plotting and action, how they keep the middle from sagging, and how they draw the ending together from all the pages that have gone before, the better able you’ll be when faced with these problems yourself. Go to conferences if you can and listen to the panelists. If you can’t do that, try outlining a really great book in the genre you are interested in, to see what the structure is. That’s what craft is all about, finding out what the tools of writing are and how best to use them. Every field, whether baseball or brain surgery, requires learning how to use the tools of that trade. Writing is no different. All the talent in the world can’t help you if you don’t know the basics.
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Jeanie
asked
Charles Todd:
I am interested in Ian's love of O. A. Manning's poetry. Wikipedia shows O.A. Manning to have been a real writer and poet, though too young to have published anything for Ian to have carried with him into battle. I found an interview acknowledging that the poetry 'quoted' in the novels was written by Charles Todd, but will you share the story of your choosing Manning as the beloved author/poet? Thanks!
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