This Year You Write your Novel Archives

I love this instruction from This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley.

Poets know that poems are songs, but few of us realize that novels are too. If there is no music to your novel, no sound, then the book will be at best incomplete. You must have a rhythm to your characters, a unique cadence to the way each one speaks, an identifiable cacophony to the world(s) they inhabit, and a beat to the story that, when varied, gives the read an almost unconscious sign of events about to unfurl.

No one will tell you how to score your novel, so that means you have to discover the music for yourself.

I’ve finished reading This Year You Write Your Novel and I wasn’t disappointed in it. It was wonderful all the way through, from beginning to end. I might be quoting from it for a long time. Near the end of the book, Mosley writes: And so when you perused the previous pages, you may have been a little let down. Perhaps you were looking for an epiphany, and all you found was a joke. If you find that the previous paragraph expresses your feelings, I say, “Don’t despair.” This book is meant only to teach the rudiments of novel writing. Greatness lies in the heart of the writer, not in technique.

That comment from Mosley brought tears to my eyes. Why? Because of his honest voice. Because of his sincerity. Because I can look back on every word he wrote in this small book and know that his heart was open and sharing. When i finished This Year You Write Your Novel, I felt/feel rejuvenated and anxious to get back to my own rewriting. I have specific things I can look for, listen for as I revise. I also picked up Mosley’s novel The Man In My Basement. The first page yanked me into the story and wouldn’t let me go.

The Denver Post called Mosley one of the country’s best writers. The New York Times states: Mosley is a kind of jazz musician, a Wynton Marsalis of the printed page…”

We would do well to find our own rhythm, allow our characters to live and march to their own beat. One way we do that is to read other writers, read poetry, write, read aloud and rewrite. Do you think of your novel as a song? Do you think it makes sense to do so? Why or why not?

If you’d like to learn more about Walter Mosley, try THIS interesting article from 2010.

One of the most important things that you will do this year will be to create complex, authentic characters that begin at one point in their lives and advance (or devolve) to another.
~Walter Mosley, from This Year You Write Your Novel

I’m reading This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley. I picked it up the other day because I’ve been wanting to read it and because it’s very short–less than 25,000 words, with lots of punch. I’m reading with hi-liter in hand, marking those passages that make me want to toss the book aside and get back to writing. Those are the good ones. Good, GREAT passages inspire me, motivate me, make me wiggle on the sofa with anticipation for my own writing accomplishments.

Walter Mosley is the author of 38+ books, including the Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones mysteries, as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction. He knows the value of a word and gets right to the point in this how-to book. I highly recommend it. You can go to Amazon to read many wonderful reviews but don’t be swayed by those few naysayers who whine. They wanted an easy fix to their writing problems and expected Mosley to give it to them. Believe me when I say, I have almost every writing book available. They say the same thing over and over and over again. What differentiates them is the author’s voice, his passion and his way of explaining something. The fact that Mosley has a straightforward, honest voice and didn’t bloviate makes this book a winner!