WAKE UP AND WRITE
Understand the Way Stories Are Constructed
Read a lot, and watch network TV
Wake Up and Write is a regular advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Nicholas Sparks—the best-selling author of twenty-one novels, including The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, and The Return— who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.
“Read a lot.”
“There’s also a lot you can learn from film. If you watch network television, you’ll note how the show ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, right before the commercial break. This makes you want to wait and see what happens next.
I definitely try to apply that framework to my own writing.
I try to make it almost impossible to stop reading at the end of a chapter because you have to know what happens next.
Understand the way stories are constructed. Stories can be understood. And figure out what you really want to write. Be clear on what you intend to write. Then finally, if you’re a young writer, whatever you do, don’t write about a young character. Everyone says write what you know, but for my first novel, The Notebook, my main character was eighty years old.”
Episode link:
Buy the book:
https://bookshop.org/books/the-return-9781538728574/9781538728574
