Here's a brief excerpt from the second part of my interview with European writer, Damien Seaman.
How to write better, faster and more
successfully
·
Blog
“In
the past ten years nearly three dozen of my students have gone on to publish
their novels or gain a top agent”
Les Edgerton knows how good a writer he is. He’s not afraid of
saying so, either.
To preorder, click here.
Or of
pointing out how many people he’s helped to get published…
“Just
about everything I’ve written has found its way into print,” is one of the ways
he says it.
“All of
us were bona fide geniuses,” is another.
That
last statement refers to his first writing group at Indiana University at South
Bend, when Les was a student under teacher Elaine Hemley. And where he picked
up the confrontational teaching style he now uses with such success with his
own online students.
He also
believes that “writers” and “authors” are separate entities. To Les, a writer
is a person of intelligence who writes from the heart, and writes the books
they need to.
An
author is clever, and lucky, and writes the same marketable book over and over.
You
want to take a guess which one Les thinks he is?
“I’m a
writer, primarily,” he says. Adding: “I used to pretend to be humble, but why
bother?”
Maybe
that’s why so many of his writing students have wanted to throw things at him.
And why some even quit on him.
But
confidence and conflict also breed clarity:
“If a
writer can’t accept the truth about their writing, then chances are pretty good
they’re never going to get published,” Les insists.
“And,
that’s our only goal—publication by a quality press.”
(Worth
noting that I’ll have a half dozen or so interviews with some of these
successful students on the blog soon. Then you can judge for yourself if these
techniques work. And if your writing would benefit.)
This is
part two of my interview with Les. (If you missed it, click here for part one.)
As
you’ll see, even when answering questions, the man can’t help but entertain:
“At
this stage of my life, it’s much more important to me to be honest than to have
people pat my back.”
You
ready for a blast of old school advice and strong opinion?
Is your
goal to become a better writer and to get published by “a quality press”?
Then
buckle in, and read on…
For the rest of our interview, go here.
This was a lot of fun. Damien's one of the best interviewers I've had the pleasure of working with.
Blue skies,
Les
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