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Swift Press publisher Mark Richards has scooped world rights to Tim Lott’s new guide to writing from Ruth Cairns at Featherstone Cairns. Yes! No! But Wait…! The One Thing You Need to Know to Write a Novel will publish on 15th June 2023 as a paperback.
Described by the publisher as a “distillation of a lifetime’s reading, writing and thinking about stories and how to tell them,” Yes! No! But Wait…! is aimed at aspiring novelists. The publisher added: “Tim Lott admits he can’t teach anyone to write a novel (that’s one of the myths propagated by the novel-writing industry). But he can teach someone how to build a firm platform on which they can stand in order to explore whether they have the combination of talent, will and determination that writing fiction requires.”
Lott said: “I wrote this book because I think the creative writing industry has become bloated — a sprawling matrix of dubious teaching practice, literary theory and profitable flattery. This behemoth is picking the pockets of hopeful writers everywhere.
"You don’t need a PhD and a degree to write a novel. You don’t even need to go on a six-month course – or a three-month course. Or any course. You need just one thing – as well as those unteachable qualities of ability, endurance and luck. This book is about that one thing.”
Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling (William Collins), added: “Tim Lott has long experience of the practice of writing fiction as well as a deep knowledge the theory of story craft – a rare yet essential combination.”