10 Common Misconceptions of the Wannabe Novelist, #1

He was going to kill me. He had me in a headlock with one arm and a knife held to my throat with the other, his hot breath tingling against my ear. If I didn’t get this story published, this guy called Novel Writing was going to slit my throat and leave me lying on the floor, bleeding out. But what was I supposed to do to leap from newbie writer (who wasn’t taken seriously) to published novelist? The answer is pretty simple, but I was deceived by many misconceptions years ago. I thought telling a good story and being a decent writer were enough. They weren’t. The publishing world has expectations, and if writers don’t bone up on what those expectations are, their masterpieces, their Great American Novels, will never leave their writers’ caves. Today I’m often approached by many who have written a novel or would like to…

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