[A note on something I mentioned yesterday: Another way of saying what my editor did about humor is that you can’t make something funny simply by making your characters laugh. Nor something sad by making them cry. Or scary by making them tremble. Gardner refers to this as “sentimentality” - an attempt to get some effect without providing due cause ( Read more... )

 

“Lucky is the writer who loves to revise; blessed is the writer who knows how.”

I made that up. I’ve rewritten it numerous times. I’m not sure the word “blessed” conveys what I want to say. Same with “lucky” - far be it for me to imply that writers who know who to revise are any more blessed than those who don’t.

Ahhh … revision. The ( Read more... )