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Read the Blog Posts Below and Get Inspired Every Day
THE LOSSES
A novel
"The Losses is a literary triumph for debut novelist Cully Perlman. The talented writer weaves a potent tale of a family split apart by betrayals and mistakes that reverberate from one generation to the next.
- Nancy Stancill
A Page a Day is a Book in a Year
Writing is a job. It's fun. It's trying. It's hard. But if you're committed to getting published, you have to put the work in. Come to Novelmasterclass.blog to get tips, read and watch interviews and book reviews, and learn how to write.
I Haven’t Written a Word of Fiction in Two Months, but It’s Not Writer’s Block
Norman Mailer said writer’s block was a “failure of the ego.” Hilary Mantel and others recommend getting away from the desk and engaging in other activities to get the juices flowing. (Hilary Mantel died in 2022, but she said it when she was alive!). Jack London said you must actively pursue inspiration rather than waiting for it. And Anthony Trollope made sure he stuck to a strict schedule so that he produced writing consistently. You do what you must.
Cully Perlman
Sep 165 min read
Artificial Intelligence Wrote This
I was in business for years, digital marketing and advertising, and so I understand his point of view and the technology behind it. I would never use AI for profit, though I do feel a little guilty having “written” the majority of this post using AI. Yes, I did it to see how AI on MS Word has improved since I first tried it out a couple years ago. This year (2025), Microsoft made further improvements, including Voice (you can execute voice commands, practice different languag
Cully Perlman
Aug 197 min read
Is My Idea a Short Story or a Novel?
What’s the underlying message I’m trying to communicate? Is it faith versus doubt? Government overreach/government against the people? Man/woman versus self? Revenge? For me, it’s likely a good combination of all of those and various/many? more. It’s just how I write, and from what I’ve read, most writers are (intentionally or not) doing the same. i.e., incorporating more than a few themes, either in their shorter works or their novels.
Cully Perlman
Aug 56 min read
Writing a Sense of Place
A setting can take three basic forms. One is the natural world, or in an outside place. In this setting, the natural landscapes of the world play an important part in a narrative, along with living creatures and different times of weather conditions and seasons. The second form exists as the cultural and historical background in which the narrative resides. Past events that have impacted the cultural background of characters or locations are significant in this way. The third
Cully Perlman
Aug 14 min read
What's a Memoir?
Authors, or better, memoirists, seek to tell their story. They write, or set out to write, non-fiction about their lives, or certain years and events in their lives, and they do so by trying to write a compelling narrative that makes the events they find important or of public interest in their histories interesting to their potential readers. I’ve known many aspiring memoirists, most of whom are getting ready to retire or have retired and now want to capture some of the magi
Cully Perlman
Jul 225 min read
Learn How to Write Fiction
Read Widely. There’s no substitute to reading good books on the craft of writing but also books in the genre you want to write in (assuming you’re writing fiction). Read with intention. Read out of your comfort zone. As Francine Prose says, Read like a writer. That means focus on what’s working and what’s not working. How does an author make you feel emotion? What words does the writer use? How do they create the worlds in which their characters live?
Cully Perlman
Jul 157 min read
Having Trouble Coming Up with Your Own Writing Style?
When I wrote my first novel, I copied the style directly from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. As most writers (I’m guessing) do, I didn’t realize that you couldn’t do that. That the style of the novel was Kerouac’s and that I couldn’t just pilfer it for my own novel.
Cully Perlman
Jul 96 min read
Don’t Waste Time Writing or Reading Novels You Don’t Love
So, what’s the fastest way to not waste your time when it comes to reading books? Don’t read the ones that don’t pull you in after a page or two. Or twenty. Your time is valuable, and there’s no sense in completing a novel if you aren’t enjoying it. Yeah, I know, I get it. Lolita is great! Never finished it, though I’ve started it probably thirty times. You haven’t read Vanity Fair by Thackeray? Nope. Doctor Zhivago? Sorry. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy? Well, I di
Cully Perlman
Jul 16 min read
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey
Structure. It’s a simple word, but it’s not that simple a concept when it comes to your novel. Most of us probably don’t even think about the structure of our novel when we begin, especially if we’re new to the game and don’t even know that different structures exist. We start writing, or we start plotting, creating an outline that’ll guide us for the entirety of our book.
Cully Perlman
Jun 177 min read
Cutting Your Novel Down to Its Essential Components
As writers, we dive deep—into our emotions, into the research we conduct so that we get every detail correct, every accent right, and that we pull from our readers the emotions within them that will keep them interested and thus keep them reading. To do that, we must focus on the book we’re trying to write. We need to understand that we have a central character that wants something and who goes after it, despite opposition. She never stops seeking what she wants, no matter wh
Cully Perlman
Jun 45 min read
Summer Books to Read While You Write
If you’re a writer like me, you have a stack of books on your kitchen table, your kitchen counter, by the fireplace (if you have one), on your nightstand, your dresser, your kids’ bookshelves, in boxes, and everywhere else you can balance a book (sorry, I don’t have books in the bathroom—I don’t trust my guests). I may not get to every book—some I just have around because of the beauty of the language, or as reference books, and so on.
Cully Perlman
May 207 min read
Finding Your Story
Over decades and centuries, writers have taken inspiration from everywhere you can think of. They take their ideas from the culture around them (or from reading about other cultures), from current events, from history, dreams, their life experiences, from people watching, from prompts, from wherever. For me, it’s usually a combination of a few of the above. The novel I’m currently revising is taken from contemporary political events. The one I wrote last year was about a fami
Cully Perlman
May 136 min read
How to Build Compelling Characters
How a character acts—their movements, their actions, their expressions, what they say and how they say it, all these things show what your character is feeling (or what they want other characters to think they’re feeling). When the author, through the narrator, shows what her characters are doing, we learn about the character’s emotions because we see them through their actions. And it’s in scene that we see the characters express their feelings by what they do.
Cully Perlman
Apr 2910 min read
Targeting Your Dream Literary Agent with Your First Chapter
In order to give yourself the best shot at getting a literary agent to represent your book, you need to be a student of the game. You need to make sure you know what your dream literary agent is hungry for, and you need to give them plenty of it. You should read everything their clients have published in the last two years, or at least the first one or two chapters. If your novel fits in with what you read, you may be on your way to ensuring you have the best chance you can h
Cully Perlman
Apr 159 min read
How to Start a Book Club
What I’ve learned about book clubs from people in book clubs is that not all book clubs are the same. Choose yours wisely.
Cully Perlman
Mar 193 min read
BOOK REVIEW: STONE ANGELS by Helena Rho explores the sexual exploitation of Korean women and girls during the Asia-Pacific War
Helena Rho’s Stone Angels, a novel about the sexual exploitation of Korean women and girls during the Asia-Pacific War
Cully Perlman
Feb 258 min read
Beware of Your Social Media Posts
Today I’m thinking about the wild west of social media, and how you, dear authors, should beware of your social media posts.
Cully Perlman
Feb 185 min read
WHY I WRITE NOVELS AND FICTION
I write novels and fiction to make sense of the world. I write to express myself, to communicate the things I find important in this life.
Cully Perlman
Feb 111 min read
What You Leave Out of your Novel is More Important Than What You Leave In
I’ve written first drafts in three weeks, and others in six months. Some have taken me years. Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in three weeks.
Cully Perlman
Feb 46 min read
5 WAYS TO GET YOUR WRITING DONE.
There is nothing in this world like writing a novel and seeing it in print. Nothing. But it requires sacrifice. It requires patience.
Cully Perlman
Jan 217 min read
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