Escaping into the Open: the Art of Writing True

What’s it about?

This is a non-fiction book on writing. Included here is my story: how I began writing all the way up to what my life as a writer is like now. There are exercises designed to stimulate your creativity, there’s practical information about agents and editors, there’s a chapter devoted to making the transition from non-fiction to fiction and so much more. I’m very pleased with the reaction this book got: I really do think it helps people.

What was the inspiration?

I wanted to have one place where I put everything I knew and believed about writing. I also wanted to act as a kind of literary cheerleader: debunking myths, suggesting that writing really isn’t all that hard, and urging people interested in writing to go right ahead and try it.

Excerpt

Escaping into the Open Book Cover
Harper Collins – 2000

“Sound can fine-tune the description of a place. Consider what you might hear at 7:30 in the evening in these three places, all of them restaurants: a four-star hotel dining room, a truck stop, a Dairy Queen on a hot summer night.”

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