« What disturbs me is not that so many people want to write a novel, but that they are led to believe it’s within their grasp. A whole self-help industry and the curriculae of countless evening classes have grown up around the public’s willing gullibility.
Like any of the arts, writing cannot be learned by rote. It is not a question of mastering rules and guidelines. Good fiction is as hard to write as a good symphony. On some level, even the most optimistic among us know that. It’s only when we finally acknowledge this to ourselves, though, that we start to enjoy reading again. »
From So you want to write a best-selling novel? Give up now, by Rosemary Goring.
via Bookslut
