A concise work that aspiring writers will find useful.
The prolific creator of Easy Rawlins provides guidance and tough-minded encouragement to writers at any stage of development.
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. 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. The author is not only an inspiring instructor; he is also a bracingly open-minded one. He cites the use by some writers of outlines and biographies of major characters before getting to their novels, but he writes that he prefers meeting his characters “the way I encounter people in life—at a place and a situation where I have less knowledge than I’d like.” Ultimately, he acknowledges that there is “no preordained pathway” to a writer’s “ultimate destination.” As with other manuals, this one doesn’t shirk from emphasizing the difficulty of writing, but Mosley’s spirited generosity helps make it less daunting.
A concise work that aspiring writers will find useful.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8021-4763-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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