A few months ago, I decided to write a book. Life as an agent keeps me pretty busy, but this is something I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s not like I don’t have any writing experience. I’ve been working on this column for years, so how hard could it be?
The answer to that question: damn hard.
I forgot that these columns are 600 words long and an average book is around 80,000. So that’s one big difference right there. Also, I’m writing a novel, not an advice book for actors, which means characters and structure and setting and all these other things I’m not used to thinking about. But hey, that’s what I signed up for, and so far I’m enjoying the process.
To get a handle on the story, I signed up for a class that’s supposed to introduce writers to different ways of thinking. The first assignment was to choose one of my favorite books, and I picked “The Great Gatsby.” Then the teacher gave us an intriguing task: She told us to type the first chapter of the book without making any changes.
This sounded like a colossal waste of time, but I had already paid for the class so I did it anyway. And halfway through the assignment, I found myself sitting right next
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