Joe’s Reviews > On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft > Status Update
Joe
is on page 146 of 291
One learns most clearly what not to do by reading bad prose--one novel like Asteroid Miners (or Valley of the Dolls, Flowers in the Attic, and The Bridges of Madison County, to name just a few) is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in.
— Jan 02, 2018 08:54PM
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Joe’s Previous Updates
Joe
is on page 269 of 291
Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.
— Jan 06, 2018 03:52PM
Joe
is on page 260 of 291
I don't want to die. I love my wife, my kids, my afternoon walks by the lake. I also love to write; I have a book on writing that's back home on my desk, half-finished. I don't want to die, and as I lie in the helicopter looking out at the bright blue summer sky, I realize that I am actually lying in death's doorway. Someone is going to pull me one way or the other pretty soon; it's mostly out of my hands.
— Jan 06, 2018 03:35PM
Joe
is on page 255 of 291
Smith told friends later that he thought he'd hit "a small deer" until he noticed my bloody spectacles lying on the front seat of his van. They were knocked from my face when I tried to get out of Smith's way. The frames were bent and twisted, but the lenses were unbroken. They are the lenses I'm wearing now, as I write this.
— Jan 06, 2018 02:04PM
Joe
is on page 254 of 291
Most of the sightlines along the mile of Route 5 which I walk are good, but there is one stretch, a short steep hill, where a pedestrian walking north can see very little of what might be coming his way. I was three-quarters of the way up this hill when Bryan Smith, the owner and operator of the Dodge van, came over the crest. He wasn't on the road; he was on the shoulder. My shoulder.
— Jan 06, 2018 02:01PM
Joe
is on page 224 of 291
As a reader, I'm a lot more interested in what's going to happen than what already did. Yes, there are brilliant novels that run counter to this preference-- Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, for one; A Dark Adapted Eye, by Barbara Vine, for another--but I like to start at square one I'm an A to Z man; serve me the appetizer first and give me dessert if I eat my veggies.
— Jan 05, 2018 09:01PM
Joe
is on page 215 of 291
Someone—I can’t remember who, for the life of me—once wrote that all novels are really letters aimed at one person. As it happens, I believe this. I think that every novelist has a single ideal reader; that at various points during the composition of story, the writer is thinking, “I wonder what he/she will think when he/she reads this ±è²¹°ù³Ù?â€�
— Jan 04, 2018 09:21PM
Joe
is on page 207 of 291
I don’t believe any novelist has too many thematic concerns; I have many interests, but only a few that are deep enough to power novels. These deep interests include how difficult it is to close Pandora’s technobox once it’s open; the question of why, if there is a God, such terrible things happen; and most of all, the terrible attraction violence sometimes has for fundamentally good people.
— Jan 04, 2018 09:05PM
Joe
is on page 188 of 291
Talk, whether ugly or beautiful, is an index of character; it can also be a breath of cool, refreshing air in a room some people would prefer to keep shut up. In the end, the important question has nothing to do with whether the talk in your story is sacred or profane; the only question is how it rings on the page and in the ear.
— Jan 03, 2018 09:44PM
Joe
is on page 183 of 291
Dialogue is a skill best learned by people who enjoy talking and listening to others--particularly listening, picking up the accents, rhythms, dialect, and slang of various groups. Loners such as Lovecraft often write it badly, or with the care of someone who is composing in a language other than his or her native tongue.
— Jan 03, 2018 07:03PM
Joe
is on page 163 of 291
When, during the course of an interview, I told the interviewer that I believed stories are found things, like fossils in the ground, he said that he didn't believe me. I replied that that was fine, as long as he believed that I believe. And I do. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact.
— Jan 02, 2018 10:21PM
