News: Walter Mosley Says You Can be a Writer

Andrea Hoag, special to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, writes that mystery novelist Walter Mosley says you, too, can be a writer. He has recently published a book, This Year You Write Your Novel in which he offers up no-nonsense advice that is sure to set beginning writers along the righteous path to real authorhood.

When Mosley first decided to write a sort of everyman's writing manual, he said, "My problem was this: I've seen a lot of books on writing ... and I really do like to hear examples of great writing, but I think it's the biggest mistake in the world to use great writing as the tool for the beginning writer."

Mosley adds, "The other thing is, I've read a lot of books about writing that are like 300 pages long. It was very important to me that mine be 100 pages or less.

According to Mosley, "I'm not trying to say that anyone can be a great novelist ... and you shouldn't want to write a novel just because you want to be a Tolstoy. The truth is, we all have talent. Some have more than others and some are better than others."

Read the rest of Hoag's article on SeattlePI.com here.

[Mystery Books News Editor's note: Visit Self Publish Mysteries for more articles, books, and general information on how to write and, optionally, self publish your mystery book.]

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