Lincoln Michel
Novelist and critic, author of The Body Scout and Metallic Realms; writes the newsletter Counter Craft on fiction craft and the publishing industry.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Lincoln Michel did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Our reading
Publishing industry claims to predict how trends will play out, but such predictions are unreliable.
Their wordsPublishers want to have people believe they know exactly how and when things will shake out, but you just never know.
↗Processing: How Nicholas Russell Wrote Observercountercraft.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Reading a book is fundamentally a solitary experience, unlike watching a film or TV show in a group.
Their wordsBut books, while you can discuss them with a group and relive them that way, are still a solitary endeavor that takes time to digest and feel.
↗Processing: How Nicholas Russell Wrote Observercountercraft.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsPerhaps this is a bold claim, but I think anyone writing about or from the southwest who isn't also in some way clocking how drought and rising temperatures and pollution are affecting the region is being disingenuous.
↗Processing: How Nicholas Russell Wrote Observercountercraft.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsThe methods we choose to use to compose the work determine the final work as much as any decision by a painter or musician.
↗Sweat the Technique: On Writing Process and Possibilitiescountercraft.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsYou need a freewheeling process to create a freewheeling work.
↗Sweat the Technique: On Writing Process and Possibilitiescountercraft.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThe cabin is a classic literary setting. It's the getaway spot where characters can flee to escape their troubles or journey to in order to find new ones.
↗Processing: How Josh Riedel Edited Thirty Cabinscountercraft.substack.com
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsEvery old book is new to someone. And, given how few books most people read, probably new to functionally everyone.
↗Stitching Up the Creature; Or, the Horrors of Revisioncountercraft.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsthis is one reason why I'm skeptical of outsourcing your creativity to LLMs.
↗Stitching Up the Creature; Or, the Horrors of Revisioncountercraft.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 6 weeks earlier
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Our reading
Stories are always deliberately constructed by their author, not something that emerges on its own.
Their wordsStories are not raw milk or nature photography. They are always constructed by the author.
↗Principles of Plotting Part III: Variationcountercraft.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsRegardless of genre or style, nearly all fiction works through a balancing act of repetition and difference.
↗Principles of Plotting Part III: Variationcountercraft.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsIt's not that the categories are wrong exactly. But they are rooted more in grammar than narrative.
↗There Are More than Five POVscountercraft.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsNarratively, there is a dramatic difference between an "I" narrator and a collective "we" narrative voice.
↗There Are More than Five POVscountercraft.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsIt's a cold mode. Most readers recoil at it. Characters are our windows into a story, and third-person objective narrators are opaque windows.
↗There Are More than Five POVscountercraft.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece