By DT Krippene
At the recent GLVWG Write Stuff™ Conference, I had the pleasure of attending Robert Liparulo’s seminars. What made his presentation so rewarding, was how approachable he was. His light-hearted, easy-going style was infectious, with ample inspiration from his journey as an author.
We spent Thursday, April 7, with how to take a story from Mind to Manuscript – The Making of Your Masterpiece. Robert borrowed on his own experience in writing his first novel, “Comes a Horseman”, which took him years to perfect before he felt confident to publish. After hitting the bestseller lists, he knocked out one story after another, no longer questioning his ability to write. He went on to publish a bestselling YA series, Dreamhouse Kings, as well as other thriller novels.
He reminded us that writing is an art, and like any artistic venture, it’s subjective. Robert admits to being a maverick in the industry, in that he rarely does extensive rewrites of his books. He said the author’s voice is how a good story is told, and extensive editing can kill that voice if an author isn’t careful. Same applies for the use of critique groups, and finds them potentially dangerous to a budding author when too many “opinions” muck up the voice. Finding a good critique partner is like gold, valuable yet hard to find. Stories are all about the character, but he was quick to point out that too much detail on the character can suppress a reader’s natural inclination to imagine what the character looks like. He demonstrated this with a review of his book covers, where you never see the character’s face.
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Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group 