Telling Lies for Fun & Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers By Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton (Introduction) ISBN: 9780688132286 ASIN: B004X7R8J2 Published: 1994 Number of Pages: 256 Edition: Reprint Binding: Paperback

Pricing & Availability: Additional Details: Product Type: Book Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks Description: It's a good thing Lawrence Block is so friendly and generous with his writing advice. Otherwise, you'd just have to hate the guy. After all, it took him a mere two weeks to write his first novel. He was still a teenager at the time, and he promptly sold it to Fawcett, the first publisher to see it. What can a guy like that tell the rest of us about fiction writing that could possibly apply to our lives? Lots, actually. Telling Lies for Fun & Profit comprises four years' worth of Block's monthly fiction-writing column from Writer's Digest magazine. In it, Block turns his witty, welcoming prose to many aspects of the writing life, including collaboration, which Block maintains he does "largely as a means of avoiding work"; speed writing (surprise: "Sometimes a book or story will be better for having been written more rapidly"); the benefits of using strong verbs; and the importance of good character names. As one might expect from a man who seems to have such a facile way with the typewriter, Block can make writing seem a lot easier than it does in real life. "If you write one page a day," he says, "you will produce a substantial novel in a year.... Don't you figure you could produce one measly little page, even on a bad day? Even on a rotten day?" Still, just because he's published about, oh, 50 books, don't think Block considers novel writing to be all fun and profit. "Those of us who are driven to produce great quantities of manuscript don't necessarily get any real pleasure out of the act," he says. "It's just that we feel worse when we don't write." --Jane Steinberg

Library of Congress Control Number
   - LC control Number:  93033749

International Standard Book Number: 0688132286 :
   - Terms of availability: $10.00

Library of Congress Call Number
   - Classification number: PN3355
   - Item number: .B56 1994

Dewey Decimal Classification Number
   - Edition number: 20
   - Classification number: 808.3

Main Entry - Personal Name
   - Personal name: Block, Lawrence.

Title Statement
   - Title: Telling lies for fun & profit /
   - Statement of responsibility, etc.: Lawrence Block ; introduction by Sue Grafton.

Edition Statement: 1st Quill ed.

Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint)
   - Place of publication, distribution, etc.: New York :
   - Name of publisher, distribution, etc.: Quill,
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: c1994.

Physical Description
   - Extent: 256 p. ;
   - Dimensions: 24 cm.

General Note: "A manual for fiction writers"--P. facing t.p.: Includes index.: Originally published: New York : Arbor House, 1981.

Subject Added Entry - Topical Term
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Fiction
   - General subdivision: authorship.

Added Entry - Uncontrolled Related/Analytical Title
   - Uncontrolled related/analytical title: Telling lies for fun and profit.