On repurposing content from novels and other longer works

How to ‘let bits of your work see the light of day’

Note: This post has been revised to incorporate information about serialization that I’d overlooked previously.

This week, as I hunker indoors amidst a deep freeze here in Middle America, I’ve also been wading into the thick slog of my novel in progress (NIP). It’s been slow going at times, as I press on through the morass, a bit like an explorer who has lost his compass and looks backward to see if it’s too late to turn back. It feels daunting and lonely, and in more than once I’ve wondered if the slog is worth it.

Continue reading “On repurposing content from novels and other longer works”

Alice Munro’s enduring example

You don’t need to write a novel to be a literary success

I know a lot of readers love to absorb themselves in a thick, juicy novel. I’m not one of them. I do enjoy a good novel, but I’m partial to the short story. As a writer, I prefer to write short fiction. Thankfully, writers like Alice Munro have given us a stellar example of how a writer of fiction can achieve success without ever writing a novel.

A masterful storyteller and perhaps the greatest writer of fiction in the past 50 years, Alice Munro died Monday, May 13, 2024, at age 92.

A selection of clips from CBC interviews with Alice Munro, the Nobel Prize-winning writer who died May 13, 2024, at age 92.
Continue reading “Alice Munro’s enduring example”