(Source: just20secondsofcourage, via loveyourchaos)
This is a blog for all who love literature, think a great afternoon is one spent in Barnes and Noble with a Starbucks in hand, and stay up late writing that scene you can't get out of your head. Welcome :)
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April 20, 2012
April 12, 2012
Literary bedrooms…
1. Victor Hugo : Dark, rich and red - Hugo’s bedroom at his home on the Place de Vosges in Paris is all that you would expect from a writer heavily influenced by the Romanticism movement.
2. Ernest Hemingway: Light floods the Nobel Prize-winning author’s bedroom at his Key West home.
3. Flannery O’Connor: The author did most of her writing at the desk in her bedroom. The aluminum crutches were used to help her get around her parents’ dairy farm.
4. Sylvia Plath: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author stayed for several months at the Barbizon Hotel for Women. This image is taken from an advertisement for the hotel and suggests what Plath’s room may have looked like at that time.
5. Henry David Thoreau: Intent on simple living, Thoreau furnished his 10’x15’ home with only the necessary basics - a bed, a table, a desk, and three chairs.
6. Virginia Woolf : Full of details — the bookshelves house the author’s artful collection of books, many of which she recovered with colored paper.
7. Emily Dickinson: Most of the poet’s writing was done at a small writing table in her bedroom.
8. Marcel Proust: A victim of asthma and severe allergies, Proust’s bedroom was a masterwork in shelter and seclusion. All apertures were shielded or sealed, and the walls and ceiling were covered in cork to protect the author from the dust and noise of the outside world.
9. William Faulkner: More of an office with a bed — the Nobel prize-winning author outlined the plot of The Fable on the walls of the room and then shellacked his notes to preserve them.
10. Truman Capote: The author’s bedroom at his Hamptons beach house is simple, but elegant.
More here.
April 4, 2012
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1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”
5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
"— C.S. Lewis’ infinitely practical writing advice, as contained in a letter to a young American fan (via ladysisyphus)
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(via tinocka)
April 2, 2012
April is National Poetry Month!
Happy National Poetry Month! We’ll be celebrating with some poem-tastic events, starting with Alien vs. Predator this Wednesday, plus a Poetry Sale later this month.
(via literarybinge)
March 30, 2012
March 25, 2012
Banned books display by covs97 on Flickr.
I must be a librarian.
(Source: whimsicalbooks, via literarybinge)
March 19, 2012
Writing Tips 101
Writing the First Draft of Your Novel
Mar 17, 2012 by James King
The first draft is one of the most challenging steps in the novel-writing process. Here are some tips on how to get started… and keep going.
You think about it as you get dressed for the day ahead. It occupies your thoughts as you commute to work or pick up the kids. It’s there when you brush your teeth before bed, and it may even find its way into your dreams. It’s the idea that you know, just know, would make a great novel—if only you could get it all down on paper.
The good news: You can. The not-so-good-news: It won’t be easy. It’s going to take hard work, commitment, and, oh yeah, probably more than a draft or two before your novel is ready to be sent out into the world. But before you can write that second or sixth or sixteenth draft, you have to write the first. Let’s look at how to get started… and keep going until it’s complete.
Start with a Relaxed Synopsis
Writing a novel is a journey. Every journey needs a map. For the first leg of your journey, the first draft, your map can be as general or as detailed as you like. You don’t even need to know where you want the journey to end. But to get started, you need a general idea of where you’re headed. So prepare a one- to two-page synopsis that describes what the novel will be about, who the main characters will be and, importantly, what the central conflict will be. Don’t worry about making the sentences and paragraphs perfect. Use bullet points if you like. The synopsis—and everything associated with your first draft—is for your eyes only.
Create a Detailed Outline… or Don’t
Before jumping into the first draft, some writers use the synopsis to create a more detailed outline for their novel. This provides a framework for moving forward. Other writers find outlines too confining and claim that it sucks the creativity out of the writing process. The hard-and-fast rule here is that there is no hard-and-fast rule. My personal preference is to create a quick outline for each chapter as I go. When I finish one chapter, I outline the next, identifying who the cast of characters will be in that chapter, what the protagonist’s goal is, and what the obstacle to achieving that goal is. This helps me make sure that each chapter has it’s own story arc, just as the overall must. This helps me keep the pace of the novel moving along briskly, avoiding (I hope) the mid-level doldrums that afflict too many manuscripts.
No Buts, Just Butts
It’s a lot easier to think about writing than it is to actually write. To write, there’s no escaping the actual—at times terrifying—moment when you must fill that empty screen or blank piece of paper. So start by starting: move that pen, tap those keys. And keep going. Most writers find that reserving the same time every day for writing helps. The key is to write every day. No buts allowed; just butts in chairs, fingers on the keyboard or pen in hand.
Give Your Inner Editor a Sabbatical
Use the first draft to be as creative as possible, to try different angles, to let the story and the characters take you in different directions. This is tough to do if that little voice inside your head is constantly piping up: “That sentence was terrible.” “Did you really mean that?” “You think anyone’s going to publish that?” There will be plenty of time in subsequent drafts to “fix” those things and craft your language. For your first draft, concentrate on getting the story down, on meeting and getting to know your characters, and finding the voice and style that seems to best fit your story. Tell that inner editor to chill until the second draft.
It Can Be Good to Write Bad
Once you start, keep going. Give yourself permission to write a really bad first draft. Think of the first draft as your warm-up, your chance to flesh out your story and meet (and get to know) your characters, You might find that your characters say and do things that you hadn’t anticipated. This is good. This means that your characters are becoming more fully developed, as is your storyline. So just keep writing, keep moving the story forward. In her classic book on writing, Bird by Bird, (Pantheon Books, New York, 1994), Ann Lamott dedicates an entire chapter to the quality of first drafts. The name of that chapter is “S***ty First Drafts.” That should give you an idea of the approach this acclaimed writer takes to her first drafts.
Celebrate, Then Jump Back In
Finished the first draft? Congratulations! You’ve achieved a goal that most would-be novelists never reach. So take a little time to celebrate. But don’t take too long: Your next journey, Draft Two, awaits.
**THIS IS NOT MY OWN WORK! This is the source—> Writing the First Draft of Your Novel | Suite101.com http://james-king.suite101.com/writing-the-first-draft-of-your-novel-a404708#ixzz1pay8Noz1
(Source: coffeeshopwriter)
March 19, 2012
Writing Prompt of the Day:
Write about your character’s worst fear: Whether they experience it first hand, almost have to, or imagine what it would be like. Ask yourself why do they fear what they do? Was it developed in childhood, is it completely irrational, or is it valid? Also, how does this fear define their everyday life? Do they choose to ignore it or is it a constant phobia? Does it effect their relationships with people? Their job? Their confidence? And lastly, in your story, does your character ever get the chance to overcome their fears or even face them or does their fear overcome them?
March 19, 2012
Word of the day
carp (kahrp)—verb, noun: To find fault or complain querulously or unreasonably: A peevish complaint.
Example: And knowing he could not touch her by persuasion, he carped at her and teased her like a schoolboy. — Anton Chekhov, “Excellent People,” Chekhov’s Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov’s Medical Tales
Did you know? Carp comes from the Old Norse word karpa which meant “to brag or haggle.”
February 3, 2012
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