Hugh Howey

Bestselling author of Wool and other books. Currently sailing around the world.

And then this happened….

24 replies to “And then this happened….”

On Writing is a great book.
But I wonder, did King only read the first 38 page Wool, or did he buy a copy? lol.
Someone should send him Shell Collector.

This right here has been my biggest dream since beginning writing. Very happy for you, Hugh. I can’t imagine how awesome it must feel, though I’ve tried.

Oh, I’ve tried.

That is exactly how i felt the first time i uploaded a Wool poem on Facebook and You gave it a like Hugh, glad you got to get that same feeling.
In case you forgot, lol, here it is….

“Man played dice with the universe and lost
Never thinking about the cost
A planet black, this dying earth
A silo suffering the pangs of birth
Underground they hide in fear
Not knowing the end is near.

and

To have lived and never seen the sky
Your whole life without the reason why
Desperate to know “What does it all mean?”
Solved only when you are sent to clean

I am working on two fan fics based on Wool, one collection of short stories, one decent sized novel which will be filled with these feeble attempts at poetry. It is taking longer than I had planned, trying very hard to get one out by the holidays.
Thanks for the inspiration.

Very, very cool Hugh. I know you’ve achieved a lot in your writing career so far, but this must be another milestone reached (and clearly well deserved). King doesn’t give accolades easily or freely, and this is a great review from a master.

Merry Christmas!

Matt

Squeee! Stephen King’s “On Writing” is one of those great books that’s both a fun story and an inspiration to aspiring writers. It gave me permission to start breaking rules and finding my own voice. What a compliment, Hugh!

Speaking of On Writing… There is a Youtube video called “MattHughes-OnWritingScenes”, let me be the first to say it is GENIUS, for all my study of genre fiction writing he pointed out things I had never heard before.
Narrative fiction (the stuff written by the great literary masters) is present tense. All my life I was told all writing should always be present tense, but genre fiction works better in past tense. I have looked around, he is on to something. He also focuses on POV, most importantly third person limited, which is what readers want, even if they don’t know it. It is a great way for the reader to learn things as different characters learn them. Writing in the omniscient view is popular in Europe but not well accepted in the US.
What is the difference? A man walks through a pitch black room and bangs his leg on a table, “Ouch”. This is omniscient. A man walks through a dark room, feels a sharp pain as his leg hits something, “Ouch”,he leans over and feels it is a coffee table. This is third limited, we learn things when he learns them. It is much better for suspense.
He also does a good job showing that over description, like that of a character, might push away readers. Who can relate to a seven foot tall redhead? Lol. Only include description that essential to the story.
I hope you get the time to watch it Hugh, not that you need it, but I still hold the hope you will put together your own ‘On Writing’ book someday, and it might inspire you. We need how to books by people who know how to……

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