Writing
The author as expert
One of the ego boosts that an author enjoys is being deemed an “expert” on topics included in his or her stories. With most writers, who are by nature promiscuous of ideas, expertise is an illusion. (The image is my Paris-based novel, Skulduggery in the Latin Quarter. The art is by my wife, Junko Yoshida.)……
Read MoreThe author as entertainer
There is a line where writing somehow crosses over and becomes “art.” No writer in the world knows where that line is, and no sane writer makes it his or her mission in life to get there and cross over. Better to just do one’s very best to entertain the reader. by David Benjamin……
Read MoreThe author as educator
Some misguided souls refuse to read fiction, explaining—when I ask—that they want to learn stuff, as though there is nothing to learn in Aeschylus, Shakespeare and James A. Michener. The truth is that every storyteller begins with a ton of homework, lest his or her readers refuse to suspend disbelief. by David Benjamin Even the……
Read MoreToying with time
by David Benjamin Any time a writer decides to toy with time, to alter chronology as a narrative device, the risk is reader confusion. The writer also risks blowback for historical mistakes or by trips to the future that strain credibility. The temptation for time-travel must be executed with originality and bolstered by research. ……
Read MoreThe moment of narrative confidence
by David Benjamin As I blunder through the first dozen chapters of a new novel, called Cheat, I can’t help reflect on the crisis of confidence affects every novelist, no matter how experienced, at the beginning—and in the middle—of every project. Even for a veteran author, beginning a novel is a daunting prospect. Continuing……
Read MoreThe invisible poetry of prose
by David Benjamin One of the secrets to writing fluid prose is to be educated in the meter, rhythms, discipline and wordplay of great poems. For a writer, the consequence of not appreciating the poetry of prose is to hit the sort of sour note that turns off the reader. For three years in……
Read MoreThe church-lady factor
by David Benjamin Since its beginning, literature has been hounded by bluenoses with blue pencils, trying to excise words and ideas offensive to the current legions of decency and orthodoxy. Every writer, sooner or later, has to decide a response to the relentless force of censorship. Last year, prior to the official “launch” event……
Read MoreThe writer as reader
For a writer, more than for anyone in any other profession, you are what you have read. The story of your life, unless you’re Don Quixote or Captain Ahab, is not enough to captivate readers. by David Benjamin Dr. Seuss ruined my life. I was in first grade. My teacher led her class to……
Read MoreA body of work
by David Benjamin We remember one of the last century’s literary immortals, J.D. Salinger, by one great novel, The Catcher in the Rye, ten short stories and a few insignificant novellas. He apparently stopped writing anything 45 years before he died. It’s conceivable that, while living all that time in seclusion somewhere in New Hampshire,……
Read MoreBe clever, kid, but not …
by David Benjamin While reading one of Louis Bayard’s historical mysteries, The Pale Blue Eye, I paused to highlight a line and, as I did so, thought about the writer’s ability (or inability) to weave imagery, sound and sensation into a linear narrative, ideally without divertting the story’s flow. Bayard’s line reads, “Her petticoats always……
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