Based on a true story, The Less You Know the Sounder You Sleep is a tale of survival and self-determination, innocence and lies. In this video, Juliet Butler introduces her novel and the true story that inspired it.
I wanted to write many years before I became good at it. I practiced writing in the same way that a pianist practices scales or a tennis player practices serves. I worked on sentences, then paragraphs, then scenes, over and over, until I got them right. If you want to become a writer, you may find the same is true for you. There is a long apprenticeship before you can write a full-length novel—and ages before you can write a good one. However, you can develop traits in yourself that will make it more likely you will succeed.
I am not saying you can’t be an excellent writer without developing these characteristics—authors’ personalities are replete with bizarre idiosyncrasies, social deviance, not to mention serious drug and alcohol abuse that sometimes obscure the work, itself. Admittedly success for any writer is rare, but here are a few ideas that might those of you who are writing.
Congratulations to Jon McGregor who is shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 with his book Reservoir 13. The award-winning author of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
and Even the Dogs. Reservoir 13 tells the story of many lives haunted by one family’s loss.
We’re all geared up for summer here at 4th Estate so we’ve put together a list of book we’ll be reading during our time off as well as recommendations of some other great reads, that we think should definitely be included in your holiday book bag.
