Guest Post: How and Why I Write by Lee Stone

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Lee Stone
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Re: Guest Post: How and Why I Write by Lee Stone

Post by Lee Stone »

Free Fish Friday will be available for free download tomorrow on Amazon. One day only! Please enjoy.

-- 11 Feb 2016, 14:54 --

Free Fish Friday is once again free for download, Feb 12 only. Enjoy and share with friends who enjoy putting free books in their library. Reviews are accessible on both Amazon and Goodreads.
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bruce-mesnekoff
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Post by bruce-mesnekoff »

Nice post i'm also author of a book so your post is very interesting and helpful.
thanks
Bruce Mesnekoff
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AJ COOPER
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Post by AJ COOPER »

I clicked into this article because I was interested in "How" you write. I took it quite literally. However I am actually more grateful for the advice you posted. I am someone who certainly enjoys creating a pool of words for people to "wade" through, a habit which I need to curb. Its nice hearing that this is a common problem but also a curable one. :D
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Post by Vermont Reviews »

I enjoyed your article. Well written.
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DATo
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Post by DATo »

Lee Stone wrote:How and Why I Write by Lee Stone
(author of Free Fish Friday and Barracuda)


My motivation is pretty simple. Whenever I visit a beach, which is often fortunately, I pile up some wet sand and create a sand sculpture. A lion. A polar bear. A mermaid playing a violin. Characters from “Wizard of Oz.” Some people walk on by, oblivious to what I have done. Others nod and smile. There are many others, however, who stare in wonder, snap pictures, and declare that the sand image made their day. Imagine that. Made their day!

That’s why I write. There’s that possibility of making someone’s day.
Personally, I think that line above is the true secret to becoming a successful writer, if not, it should be. I suppose the word successful first needs to be defined. If literary success is determined by how much money one makes then certainly many books can be found which have made their creators successful - books which have been read and then cast aside never to be picked up again, never to be thought of again. And then there are books which soar beyond the temporary fix for escape and become a part of the reader's life philosophy: books which are cherished and loved, quoted and referenced.

Michelangelo was paid for his sculpture, David, but no one will ever convince me that he was thinking about money as he plied his chisel. Great art transcends the allure of monetary mammon. It is the very flesh and blood of the creator made manifest in his work, and when we, the beholders, experience it for the first time, whether it be a sculpture or a book we are transfixed and often staggered by something we perhaps cannot define but recognize as greatness.

I believe that in the writing of all truly great books there came the moment when the author slipped the shackles of professional consideration and entered another world, a world located somewhere beneath the skin and down at the bone, where he may experience subtle glimmerings of undefined and ineffable truths, and then the challenge begins, to express what cannot be expressed by lesser writers, and when he does we know it though we may not be able to give voice to what has moved us.

As with Mr. Stone's sand sculptures there will be those readers who will just pass by, others who will devote a more attenuated passing glance, and yet others who will stop, enthralled by what they are experiencing and aware that they are in the presence of something special which has made their day, and perhaps for some, even that which has opened a window to their life.
“I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed reading accident. I hit a book mark and flew across the room.”
― Steven Wright
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Lee Stone
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Post by Lee Stone »

I'm especially proud to announce my publication of "The Student Council." I have swung for the literary fences with the story of a beguiling teenage girl who decides that fate is for the making, not the taking. She will engage, intrigue, surprise, and, most of all, shock you. Amy Westin is intent on setting up shop in your imagination forever.

Available now on Amazon!
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Post by Vermont Reviews »

Excellent post. I enjoyed reading your article. Well written and truly enjoyable to read.

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dpuckridge
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Post by dpuckridge »

Thank you for showing the interview with Lee Stone
I found it interesting and informative in his main thoughts are to use less words, but to make it heavy without the reader knowing.
Very good interview, that I hope I can use when I sit down to write my book
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Post by karolinka »

Thank you for your insightful article!
I am also an author and have a book that I am currently shopping to agents. I always have an idea in my head for a book or article that needs to come out, similarly to your sand creations. Writers just need to express what's inside them! They have to write!
"How to be a writer. Step one: Write."
- A. Beauchamp.
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Post by bigfootmurf »

Interesting article. Christopher Hitchens was probably worried about the sheer volume of books being published, even greater now with electronic publishing, self-publishing. Clive James once said that people should be paid not to write novels. Certainly being economical with the prose is one way to cut down on the quantity but there are so many books competing for one's attention now - the whole raison d'etre for this site - that it seems almost futile to add another one to the pile. It certainly takes a lot of self-belief. At least review sites help the potential reader to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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Post by Amagine »

I enjoyed reading this and I agree, everyone had their own reason to write. I admire that you said your reason is because you want to make someone's day. Writers sometimes forget the impact their writing can have on people. Your reason for writing is very commendable.
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Post by ollesternberg »

Lee Stone wrote:How and Why I Write by Lee Stone
(author of Free Fish Friday and Barracuda)

The late author and literary critic Christopher Hitchens once said, “Everyone does have a book inside them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay.” He had only the first half right.

Maybe because I was educated as an English teacher, I’ve been asked to edit first attempts at novels or memoirs by friends and relatives over the years. Their stories were ALWAYS worth sharing, but invariably painful to read. I offered the same suggestion to all: Use half as many words! I would demonstrate that economy on their first few pages and leave the rest up to them. Therefore, I’d amend Hitchens this way: “Everyone does have a book inside them, and others will read it as long as words don’t get in the way.”

In discussing my own writing, I mention economy of language first for one reason: While it’s not a master key to success, its absence can be a kiss of death. I want readers to sail through pages, not wade through them. I think of my novels as “Seattle to Miami” reading. Page one on take-off and done on landing. One and done. A smooth flight.

While light-handed in style and delivery, I strive to be anything but light-hearted with the material. I think of it as “sneaky heavy.” No simple who-done-its from my imagination. No heroes versus villains. No black and white. People are more complex than that. That complexity is what makes us all interesting.

Character growth is the crucial element for me. In my inaugural book, Slacker Mills is a poster boy for arrested development. In his mid-thirties, he finally begins a transition to adulthood when he befriends a proper mentor and experiences adversity for the first time.

Every author probably has somewhat different motivation to spend months hunched over a keyboard. Some aspire to write the most suspenseful thriller or heart-melting romance. Others have conjured up a fairyland or faraway planet that readers need to visit. Still more want to help others journey into the past or future. All have something they want to share.

My motivation is pretty simple. Whenever I visit a beach, which is often fortunately, I pile up some wet sand and create a sand sculpture. A lion. A polar bear. A mermaid playing a violin. Characters from “Wizard of Oz.” Some people walk on by, oblivious to what I have done. Others nod and smile. There are many others, however, who stare in wonder, snap pictures, and declare that the sand image made their day. Imagine that. Made their day!

That’s why I write. There’s that possibility of making someone’s day.


** Editor’s Note: Take a peek at Lee Stone’s sand sculptures at Delray Beach Sand on Facebook.

Free Fish Friday
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Barracuda
view on Amazon view on Bookshelves

Whoa thanks for posting your amazing article!! it makes sense to me.. :hand: :hand:
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Post by CHL »

I think I love you already, Mr. Stone. I'll check out your books. Your way of writing is what I am looking for. Write some more!
"Do not take life too seriously, no one gets out alive anyway."
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Lee Stone
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Post by Lee Stone »

Too kind, CHL. I hope to make your day!
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Post by Afuglsan »

Amazing and inspiring advice! Thank you for taking the time to share this with us.
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