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Write Smart
Write Smart
Write Smart
Ebook67 pages42 minutes

Write Smart

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Much acclaimed author Ken Kuhlken shares insights gained over thirty-some years as a novelist, university creative writing professor and founder of Perelandra College. By following the Write Smart process, writers will efficiently conceive, create, revise, and sell their stories.

Topics include: conceiving the idea; developing the idea; thinking ahead to a book proposal; finding and applying a structure; creating the story in rough; revising in steps; seeking an agent and publisher or choosing to self-publish, and marketing or promoting the book.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 3, 2013
ISBN9781311534392
Write Smart
Author

Ken Kuhlken

Ken Kuhlken's stories have appeared in ESQUIRE and numerous other magazines, been honorably mentioned in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.His novels include MIDHEAVEN, finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Award for best first fiction book, and the Hickey family mysteries: THE BIGGEST LIAR IN LOS ANGELES; THE GOOD KNOW NOTHING; THE VENUS DEAL; THE LOUD ADIOS, Private Eye Writers of America Press Best First PI Novel; THE ANGEL GANG; THE DO-RE-MI, finalist for the Shamus Best Novel Award; THE VAGABOND VIRGINS; THE VERY LEAST; and THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING.His five-book saga FOR AMERICA, is together a long, long novel and an incantation, a work of magic created to postpone the end of the world for at least a thousand years.His work in progress is a YA mystery.His WRITING AND THE SPIRIT advises artists seeking inspiration. He guides readers on a trip to the Kingdom of Heaven in READING BROTHER LAWRENCE.Also, he reads a lot, plays golf, watches and coaches baseball and softball, teaches at Perelandra College, and hangs out with his daughter when she comes home from her excellent college back east.

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    Book preview

    Write Smart - Ken Kuhlken

    WRITE SMART

    Ken Kuhlken

    In Write Smart, novelist Ken Kuhlken shares insights gained over thirty-some years that will allow you to efficiently conceive, create, revise, and sell your novel, memoir, or other book length narrative.

    Praise for Ken and his Novels

    ... brings a great new character — and a fresh voice — into the mystery field. Novelist Tony Hillerman

    "Kuhlken is an original, and in these days of cookie-cutter

    fiction, originality is something to be prized." San Diego Union Tribune

    ... brings the social and cultural scene of the period vividly to life. Publisher's Weekly

    ... takes readers into dark experiences and deep understandings that can't help but leave them changed.

    Novelist Michael Collins

    Kuhlken weaves a complex plot around a complex man, a weary hero who tries to maintain standards as all around him fall to temptation. Publisher's Weekly

    ... a stunning combination of bad guys and angels, of fast-moving action and poignant, heartbreaking encounters. Novelist Wendy Hornsby

    ... captures the history and atmosphere of the 1970s as well as the complex dynamics of a fascinating family. Booklist

    ... a tale as sensitive and heartfelt as it is action-packed ... Crime, punishment and redemption. Kirkus Reviews

    ... fast-moving adventure, effectively combines mainstream historical fiction with the conventions of the hard-boiled detective novel. Booklist

    "A wonderful, literate, and very ambitious novel that does

    everything a good story should do. It surprises, delights, it jolts and makes you think ." Novelist T. Jefferson Parker

    ... a pleasure to read. Novelist Anne Tyler

    Elegant, eloquent, and elegiac, Kuhlken's novels sing an old melody, at the same time haunting and beautiful. Novelist Don Winslow

    Copyright 2013

    by Ken Kuhlken

    ISBN: 9781311534392

    BISAC:

    SEL009000 SELF-HELP / Creativity

    LAN005050 LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Writing / Fiction Writing

    LAN005060 LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Writing / Nonfiction

    Smashwords Edition

    Published by

    Hickey & McGee

    www.hickeybooks.com

    Contents

    Author's note

    Conceiving

    Discovering the Action Idea

    Thinking Ahead to a Book Proposal

    Developing a Structure

    Creating

    Revising

    Publishing

    Marketing

    And You Must Remember This

    Recommended Reading

    A Request

    All Ken’s Books

    About the Author

    Continue Learning

    Author's Note

    I don’t go to many parties.

    One reason is, somebody always tells somebody I'm a writer then I get asked if I make a lot of money and that rude question is commonly followed by, When I retire, I'm going to write a bestseller. I have it all figured out.

    After hearing that boast a few dozen times, I decided to get ornery and began to reply, And when I retire, I'm going to build a rocket ship and fly clean out of this galaxy.

    At a party hosted by my friend Sarah Vogan while we attended the University of Iowa graduate writing program, somebody asked a smart and experienced professor: How long after graduation does it usually take to become a publishing writer?

    This was, of course, before the tech powered book in self-publishing, which allows anybody to publish whenever they choose, which can either be a blessing or a curse.

    Anyway, back then, the professor said, About ten years. Which made none

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