When it comes to the novel you have to work long and hard even to produce a bad one. This may help explain why there are so many more bad amateur poets around than there are bad amateur novelists. Writing a good poem may be as difficult as writing a good novel. It may even be harder. But any clown with a sharp pencil can write out a dozen lines of verse and call it a poem. Not just any clown can fill 200 pages with prose and call it a novel. Only the more determined clowns can get the job done.
Lawrence Block, Writing the Novel, 1979
Lawrence Block, Writing the Novel, 1979
"It was a rainy day in December when the flying terrapin hit me full in the face." Good so far? What next?
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