This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley

The author is not only an inspiring instructor he is also a bracingly open-minded one. These random premises often feel like sneak peeks into Mosley’s notebooks, but their intended effect is to make fledgling writers believe they can freely invent their own story ideas and carry them to fruition. He deploys similar story premises to show when and how to disclose the emotional lives of characters and how authorial improvisation can jar open fresh perspectives and a new set of narrative paths to follow. While some may seem too over-the-top to be anything more than parody, Mosley’s purpose is to show readers the array of choices a novelist faces in setting up conflicts, not least of which is where and when a story might take place. Mosley elaborates on the definition of plot he used in This Year, noting that “every story is a mystery of one sort or another.” To illustrate this and other rules and assertions, the author unspools some narrative premises of his own invention. Where his first writing guide emphasized matters of diligence and discipline, here the author focuses on such storytelling basics as character, physical details, and points of view (he occasionally suggests that using a first-person narrator is harder than it seems). In this follow-up to This Year You Write Your Novel (2007), Mosley ( Down the River Unto the Sea, 2018, etc.) further demystifies fiction writing through language as taut and spare as the prose in his own novels. 'No-nonsense advice that is sure to set beginning writers along the righteous path to real authorhood.The prolific creator of Easy Rawlins provides guidance and tough-minded encouragement to writers at any stage of development.

Get past those first challenging sentences and into the heart of a story.

Determine the narrative voice that's right for every writer's style.

Create a daily writing regimen to fit any writer's needs - and how to stick to it.

Intended as both inspiration and instruction, this book provides the tools to turn out a first draft painlessly and then revise it into something finer. In this invaluable book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish their novel in one year. 'Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls,' bestselling novelist Walter Mosley advises. With award-winning author Walter Mosley as your guide, you can write a novel now.

'A straightforward, friendly guide for aspiring writers' ( Los Angeles Times): No more excuses.

This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley