Robert D. McKee
Author. . .
Robert D. McKee has held a number of jobs, including four years in the U.S. Navy, warehouse worker, radio announcer, disc jockey (in the fun days of AM Rock), court reporter, and municipal court judge.
His short fiction has appeared in more than twenty commercial and literary publications. He is a recipient of a Wyoming Art Council’s Literary Fellowship, a three-time first-place winner of Wyoming Writers’ adult fiction contest, and a two-time first-place winner of the National Writers Association’s short fiction contest. One of his stories was selected to appear in the prestigious publication, Best American Mystery Stories. He currently has a short story in Contention, a Five Star-Cengage anthology of Frontier Fiction. He is also the prize-winning author of five Western novels: Dakota Trails, Killing Blood, Out of the Darkness, Gypsy Rock, and the upcoming Reckoning at Lost Hope.
Robert D. McKee on Writing
Since this is a novelist's page, I should speak to the act of writing. Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
That's a great quote, but I have to disagree. There are two rules every novelist must follow. Number One: Make yourself start. Number Two: Make yourself keep writing until it's finished. Neither rule is easy. But I promise, if you start and keep at it, it's inevitable that you will find your way to the end.
Of course, you might also consider the Dorothy Parker quote. “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
Wishing you all the best of luck - Bob McKee
