Hurling Words into Darkness

A Book Doctor’s Dose of Brain Science for Writers


Revised Second Edition

Hurling Words into Darkness is not step-by-step how-to. Plenty of other books provide specific advice. This one, by introducing some basic neuroscientific concepts, hopes to give writers x-ray glasses for their own work, help them think for themselves in new ways, and guide them around the Sirens of screwing it all up.

Some of the material relates specifically to fiction, but much is also applicable to nonfiction. Many of the same principles apply, and plenty of good nonfiction—especially history, biography, and narrative nonfiction, which includes memoir—borrows copiously from fiction technique.

I won’t tell you how to write your novel or script. Your creativity, imagination, originality, skill, and hard work are what will make your manuscripts wonderful. I can only help you avoid some of the fatal errors and suggest a deeper perspective on what we’re doing, how, and why.

The second edition of Hurling Words into Darkness adds some additional information and examples and at last provides a digital version.


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