What you study you become. As long as you test and practice the advice you uncover.
Studying the million-word-a-year authors from the pulp magazine days found a handful of authors that not only walked their talk, but they took the time to write out how they had achieved what they did-and how.
This is a collection of excerpt of their works. The best of the best.
And in my own first year of cracking through the phantom walls to writing fiction, I found that I, too, had attained the methods and status of being able to write and publish over a million words in that year.
What you see in this book are the pithy short cuts that smiply writing down to its core principles. And those you can and should test for yourself-then throw out anything that doesn't pass your own test.
In this second edition, I've added the ground rules that I used for my own reseearch-and the key methods of finding and distilling that vast amount of "how-to" books out there. The hundreds that are written by also-ran, plugging authors and academic types who have never hit the standards that were set before they were born.
You don't have ot read hundreds of author craft books to get to the core basics.
This one collection of excerpts will get you well on your way.
Provided you test and prove them for yourself.
Writers are made by writing lots of writing.
Somewhere along the line, they quit trying to prove that they can do it, because they already have. And their volume and quality of work proves their point.
After that, you just continue to improve the quality. And that's for your readers. Because you're long past realizing that when you are thrilled about your own writing every time you sit down-and that means your reader will be just as thrilled. After that, the world and its own worries can go hang. Your readers are getting what they love and what they expect.
This is possible for anyone who loves to write. Or wants to learn how to love it.
