Brandon Taylor: ‘Writing is the most fun I’m capable of having’

The American author talks about growing up queer in a family of ‘wolves’, poverty and class in the US, and the 19th-century writers who inspired his latest novelBrandon Taylor writes quickly. “I can type almost as fast as I can think,” he says. The first draft of his debut novel, the Booker-shortlisted Real Life, took him five weeks; last June he challenged a writer friend to a race. The friend had been 30,000 words ahead on his book, with Taylor going from a standing start, but by August, Taylor had finished, while his friend was still ploughing on.Since Taylor says that “everybody in my family dies young”, one might assume that this is a rush to seize the day. But writing, he says, is also “the most fun I’m capable of having”. When he discovered the internet aged 12, via his parents’ dial-up modem in rural Alabama (the web being “this beautiful land that I could only visit temporarily because somebody wouldn’t pay the phone bill”), Taylor used to produce 8,000 words a day, writing five collaborative stories at once on roleplay forums. “That was good training for having stamina as a writer,” he explains, a genial 34-year-old in a blue denim shirt sitting at a table in the Guardian’s London offices. “As long as I have a good sense of scene or character, when I get a good first line there is nothing standing between me and the end.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-03 10:00:28 UTC ]
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Richard Milward: ‘I hid my writing like a secret vice’

The novelist on his latest book, a Charles Manson-inspired work written in slang, his love of the band Mogwai and the trials of sorting post for Royal MailRichard Milward, 38, grew up in Middlesbrough and lives in London. He is the author of three previous novels: Apples, published when he was... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-18 18:00:17 UTC ]
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Okay, so you can write books with AI. But why bother?

As was perhaps inevitable, ChatGPT—the free chatbot created by OpenAI that has been ruffling feathers ever since it was launched in November—has now spawned “a boom in AI-written e-books on Amazon,” according to Greg Bensinger at Reuters. Bensinger counted over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-22 17:10:52 UTC ]
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Springer Nature Acquires TooWrite for Its Writing Researchers

The 'research solutions' division of Springer Nature acquires the TooWrite platform, still in development, for research writers. The post Springer Nature Acquires TooWrite for Its Writing Researchers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-02-14 18:04:52 UTC ]
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Catapult to Shutter Online Magazine, Writing Classes

The decision to suspend the publisher's editorial and educational arms will "consolidate our efforts around our book publishing program," the publisher said in a statement. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Women’s prize to launch annual award for women’s non-fiction writing

The Women’s Prize Trust hopes to make the first award in 2024, after research showed female writers were far less likely than men to be reviewed or win prizes The Women’s prize is to launch a non-fiction award to sit alongside its long-running fiction prize, in response to research that found... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-02-08 08:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #non-fiction writing #book prize #win prizes #sit alongside #male counterparts #awarded annually #female writers #charity set #literary agent

Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Brandon-Croft, Tate, Millner, and More

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from Barbara Brandon-Croft, Dizz Tate, Maggie Millner, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millions keep churning out great books... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2023-02-07 10:59:00 UTC ]
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Why Denise Crittendon Won’t Write About Violence

Denise Crittendon’s debut science fiction novel, Where It Rains In Color, leads us to the planet of Swazembi, a blazing, color-rich utopia and famous vacation center of the galaxy. Set far in the future, this idyllic, peace-loving world sees no real trouble. But Lileala’s perfect, pampered... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-03 09:51:26 UTC ]
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Eleanor Shearer on Writing a Post-Slavery West Indian Novel Celebrating Motherhood and Resilience

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew talks to River Sing Me Home author Eleanor Shearer about her hotly... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-01 09:53:21 UTC ]
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For Aleksandar Hemon, Writing is a Search for a Form That Doesn’t Yet Exist

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and three books of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award;... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-24 09:53:24 UTC ]
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Christine Ma-Kellams Wants to Survive What Happens in Your Writing

In our monthly series Can Writing Be Taught? we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This time, we’re talking to Christine Ma-Kellams, who’s teaching an online eight-week fiction workshop. From improving narrative... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-20 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

According to multiple presenters at the Digital Book World conference, ChatGPT has potential to remake the way people write and streamline production and editing, while AI voice replication promises affordable audiobook adaptations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

Kelcey Ervick Brings an Athlete’s Discipline to Writing

In one of my favorite pages of The Keeper, Kelcey Ervick‘s graphic memoir about her time as a goalie in the early days of Title IX, Ervick is, at this point, no longer a teenage soccer player. Time has passed, and she’s now a wife and a mother trying to take herself seriously as a … The post... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2023-01-11 11:00:04 UTC ]
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‘Let the fun begin!’ Why did romance writer Susan Meachen fake her own death? | Arwa Mahdawi

Two years after her apparent suicide, the novelist has announced she is still very much alive. Is this what it takes to sell books nowadays?‘All publicity is good publicity,” Susan Meachen thought to herself as she prepared to stage her suicide. In September 2020, Meachen, the self-published... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-11 07:00:12 UTC ]
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In his own write: Prince Harry’s ghostwriter is so famous that George Clooney made a film of his life

JR Moehringer, biographer to stars such as Andre Agassi and a doyen of the genre, was an obvious choice for the Duke of SussexWhen Prince Harry chose to work with ghostwriter JR Moehringer on his institution-shaking memoir, Spare, he was not taking half measures. The American writer and Pulitzer... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-07 18:42:05 UTC ]
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Why Travel Writing is a Form of Memoir and How Covid Has Changed How We See the World

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Pico Iyer, the author of The Half Known Life: In Search... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-06 09:52:43 UTC ]
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The Hardest Part of Writing My Memoir Was Telling My Family About It

You should watch Euphoria, a friend told me while we were on a walk during our young daughters’ dance class. I wasn’t sure why she would suggest this. Particularly in the context of our conversation: I was confiding in her about the anxiety that felt like it had been boiling inside of me for... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-13 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Struggling authors know writing is a rich person’s hobby | Letters

Stephen Carver, Guinevere Glasfurd, Brian Needham and Jo McMillan respond to Joanne Harris’s article about horribly low pay in the publishing worldRegarding Joanne Harris’s article (Horribly low pay is pushing out my fellow authors – and yes, that really does matter, 7 December), I guess I’m a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-12-11 17:07:25 UTC ]
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Amazon Kindle Scribe Review: Read and Write on this Pricey Ebook Reader

You can read ebooks, write notes, or mark up PDFs on this new slate, but your wallet will feel a lot lighter. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2022-12-08 14:00:00 UTC ]
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What Running Has Taught Me About Writing (and Vice Versa)

I’m a daily runner. When I run varies, depending on the day’s contours, but I always lace up and head out. Earbuds in, audiobook on, running app ready to track my slow miles along semi-rural roads. Often, I don’t want to go. No matter how much I practice, I find running difficult. When I was […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-08 09:53:23 UTC ]
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