Pep Talks, Warnings, And Screeds: Indispensable Wisdom And Cautionary Advice For Writers by George Singleton

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Synopsis

Toddlers—and drunks—bang around hitting walls, tables, chairs, the floor, and other people, trying to find their legs. Writing fiction is a similar process. Sometimes it might take a while before the story gets some balance and moves forward. Sometimes the story takes off as if motor-driven, then crashes into something not foreseen or expected. Learning to be a writer is all about finding your legs, and doing your best to convince onlookers that you know what you're doing and where you're going.

In Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds, acclaimed Southern story writer and novelist George Singleton serves up everything you ever need to know to become a real writer (meaning one who actually writes), in bite-sized aphorisms. It's Nietzsche's Beyond Good & Evil meets Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. It's cough syrup that tastes like chocolate cake. In other words, don't expect to get better unless you get a good dose of it, maybe two.

Accompanied by more than fifty original full-color illustrations by novelist Daniel Wallace, these laugh-out-loud funny, candid, and surprisingly useful lessons will help you find your own writerly balance so you can continue to move forward.

Biography

George Singleton is the author of two novels and four story collections and holds an MFA in creative writing from UNC-Greensboro. He has taught English and fiction writing at Francis Marion College, the Fine Arts Center of Greenville County, the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, the University of South Carolina, and UNC-Wilmington. www.georgesingleton.com

Daniel Wallace is the author of four novels including Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician, The Watermelon King and Big Fish (which was later made into a film directed by Tim Burton). His illustrations have appeared in the L.A. Times, Italian Vanity Fair and many other publications. www.danielwallace.org