Kristin Silvia (for Mar. 31, 2014)

Recommended Resource: Ready, Set, Novel: A Workbook by Lindsay Grant, Tavia Stewart-Streit, Chris Baty

“She doesn’t know how or where or why it began. She cannot even say when. These memories are as lost to her as is her own name. Sometimes, in the empty hours between burning, she has concocted scenarios, both elaborate and unadorned, mildly implausibl and entirely outlandish, to explain how a woman might become the midwife of infernos. These fictitious consolations have numbered in the many tens of thousands, and most are soon forgotten. They rise from her like blackened bits of paper, glowing brightly about the edges and buoyed higher and higher by the updrafts of her singular desires. They are wafted away, to settle on unsuspecting rooftops and in patches of dry brittle grass, to lie smouldering in mountainous chaparral scrublands. In this way, they bear a great resemblance to the longing of all lonely persons.“

-“Charcloth, Firesteel and Flint” by Caitlin R. Kiernan

 

Kristin Silvia (for Mar. 28, 2014)

 

Recommended Resource: http://www.nownovel.com/

It’s not a reference guide in the most typical sense, but it’s designed to be a motivator for those (all of us) who have trouble finishing a project. It provides a structure for organizing your characters, world-building, and everything else, and really helps you develop the discipline you need to write.

 

“Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don’t let it spoil you, for it’s wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can’t have the one you want.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Kristin Silvia (for Mar. 26, 2014)

Editing Resource: Grammar Girl

I think everyone should read The Giver. It’s being made into a movie, but I can already tell you that the book is infinitely better because you don’t appreciate sameness until you understand that Jonas lives in a black and white world.

“Things could change, Gabe,” Jonas went on. “Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. And grandparents,” he added, staring through the dimness toward the ceiling of his sleepingroom. “And everybody would have the memories.”

“You know the memories,” he whispered, turning toward the crib.

Garbriel’s breathing was even and deep. Jonas liked having him there, though he felt guilty about the secret. Each night he gave memories to Gabriel: memories of boat rides and picnics in the sun; memories of soft rainfall against windowpanes; memories of dancing barefoot on a damp lawn.

“Gabe?”

The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him.

“There could be love,” Jonas whispered.
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

Karen Son (for March 24, 2014)

 

 

Text:

People who have few possessions cling tightly to those they have. That is one of the facts that make life so discouraging.

Pickering, James H. Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Fiction.  Thirteenth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012.  Print.

Writing Tips:

http://freelancefolder.com/freelance-inspiration-10-examples-of-truly-exceptional-writing/

 

Karen Son (for March 17, 2014)

 

 

Text:

For sale: baby shoes, never used.

– Ernest Hemingway

Writing Tips:

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl

Eric Richard

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was a light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” — J.R.R. Tolkien (The Return of the King)

The meaning here is finally Etta James has died.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers -Renni Browne, Dave King

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Richard

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther … And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)

It should read “English is our language no exceptions…”

The Copywriter’s Handbook – Robert W. Bly

Errors Found in Writing – Eric Richard

“But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started. But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time. If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” Earnest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)

Eric Richard

Obviously it should be “to” not “two.”

“He touched the horse with his heels and rode on.  He rode with the sun coppering his face and the red wind blowing out of the west across the evening land and the small desert birds flew chattering among the dry bracken and horse and rider and horse passed on and their long shadows passed in tandem like a single being.  Passed and paled into the darkening land, the world to come.” ~Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses)

Writing the Breakout Novel – Donald Maass

Alissa S. Blog 5

Blog 5
Blooper:

In this image the apostrophe in “hat’s” is unnecessary. Also, “beyond” is spelled incorrectly.

Favorite Author:
I enjoy all kinds of poetry, but few poets really transcend time for me. John Keats is a poet who was born in 1795 and only lived to be twenty-five. In that short time, he wrote poetry so beautiful and passionate that even if you cannot understand all the old English you still know what he means. There is an ease with his writing that really makes me wish my writing can have such everlasting power.

When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be
by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

Recommended website for writers:
For most journalists, freelance writing is a large portion of their career. I have found that a good resume makes all the difference. A resume shows how credible you are as a writer. Beyond the one-on-one consulting I received for sculpting my resume, I also found this sight particularly helpful.
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/resumes/