Squawk Radio

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

ELOISA: question about using other books while writing

My current manuscript is one of those ones that's like pulling huge rocks out of a field...I work and work and at the end of the day I have two puny pages. So I find myself surrounded by a wall of books, because when I absolutely can't figure out what to do next, I open up Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (my current favorite) and look at how he constructed a sentence. I looked at Lord of Scoundrels yesterday to see how Loretta Chase did male interior monologue (which she does better than anyone else). A scholarship book called English Professional Theater 1530-1660, because my characters are putting on a play. Also the index is brilliant for coming up with names.

How about the rest of you? Am I the only one who desperately thrashes around in other people's prose when I'm stuck for my own sentences? I don't plagiarize--I just look for inspiration.... if that makes sense!

Eloisa
Eloisa James, 7:52 AM
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