His influence on modern writing is unparalleled. He revolutionised the short story, made dialogue sharper and more lifelike, and proved that what you leave out is just as important as what you put in.
That’s why, if you are not already, you should be reading him. If you’re unsure where to begin or have questions, continue reading.
He gave us slackers before they were memeable, office ennui before The Office, and a sense that we were all increasingly plugged in and alienated.
He was prolific for many years, publishing thirteen novels between 1991 and 2013—six of them in his first ten years.
But it’s now been more than a decade since his last novel, Worst. Person. Ever. It was published in 2013. So… what happened?
She helped shape the New Journalism movement in the 1960s, bringing a personal, literary sensibility to reportage. She created some of the most arresting portraits of American life in the second half of the twentieth century.
If you’re anything like me, finishing The Secret History leaves a strange kind of void. Donna Tartt’s literary debut is one of those once-in-a-decade novels: intellectually rich, psychologically intense, and impossible to put down.
Writing a novel can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to perfect every page as you go. But what if you didn’t have to get it right the first time? What if, instead, you focused on getting it down, shaping it later, and only polishing once the story is in place?
That’s the power of the three-draft method — an approach popularised by Matt Bell in his excellent craft book Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts. At its heart, this method gives writers structure, clarity and, perhaps most importantly, permission to keep going when things feel messy.
Here's how it works:
I’ve always found that writing doesn’t get easier just because you know what comes next.