Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

Letters to a young writer : some practical and philosophical advice / Colum McCann.

by McCann, Colum, 1965-

View full image

Random House, 2017.

Authorship -- Vocational guidance.

Authorship -- Essays.

Creative writing -- Essays.

Novelists, American -- 21st century -- Essays.

9781443453158 (hc.)

166 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm

Introduction: The unsayable ecstasies -- Letter to a young writer -- There are no rules -- Your first line -- Don't write what you know -- The terror of the white page -- No ideas without music -- A hero of consciousness -- Out from the dust : creating characters -- Shaping the truth -- Carry a notebook -- Be a camera -- Fuhgheddaboudit : writing dialogue -- Read aloud -- Who what where when how and why -- Seeking structure -- What matters : language and plot -- Punctuation : it's not just a throwaway thing (comma) -- Research : Google isn't deep enough -- No rust on your sentences please -- The habit of hoping -- There are no literary Olympics -- How old is the young writer? -- Don't be a dick -- Then again, don't be too nice -- Fail, fail, fail -- Read, read, read -- Rejoyce -- Writing is entertainment -- Take a break -- Who's your ideal reader? -- How to get an agent -- What if I don't get an agent? -- Finding the right editor -- Bringing (your own) fresh eyes to your stories -- Throw it all away -- Allow the reader's intelligence -- Success -- If you're done, you've only just begun -- Blurbs (or the art of literary porn) -- A secret hearing -- Where should I write? -- To MFA or not to MFA? -- Should I read while I'm writing? -- Smash that mirror -- The dark dogs of the mind -- Write yourself a credo -- The bus theory -- Why tell stories -- Embrace the critics -- Be exhausted when you finish -- Your last line -- Letter to a young writer, redux.

A lesson in how to be a writer - and so much more than that. Intriguing and inspirational, this book is a call to look outward rather than inward. McCann asks his readers to constantly push the boundaries of experience, to see empathy and wonder in the stories we craft and hear. A paean to the power of language, both by argument and by example, Letters to a Young Writer is fierce and honest in its testament to the bruises delivered by writing as both a profession and a calling. It charges aspiring writers to learn the rules and even break them. These fifty-two essays are ultimately a profound challenge to a new generation to bring truth and light to a dark world through their art. Colum McCann is the author of the novels TransAtlantic, Let the Great World Spin, Zoli and Dancer. He lives in New York City.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal