The characteristics of a good literary blog are clear titles, easily accessed, with relevant non-plagiarized blog content. Subtle or few advertisements to distract your reading assists the enjoyment of the reading. An overall positive attitude evident in the presentation, plus relevant pictures to illustrate articles and quick to open web links, so you can expand you study of the topics you find most interesting.
Blogs and newspaper articles are different, because anyone can produce a blog at a low cost and allow free access to the content. This has advantages and risks.
The risk of reading blogs is, not all bloggers have the experience to understand there are ethics involved on publishing material. Advertorial is often passed off as factual information. Reviews are frequently biased, as they may be paid content, and those cute puppy pictures you might think safe to leave a child looking at, might link to an adult website.
What makes a blog engaging to read? The niche market it focuses on. Blogs also provide information at a low cost.
Books » Computers » Internet » Web Browsers
Blogging for Creatives How Designers, Artists, Crafters and Writers Can Blog to Make Contacts, Win Business and Build Success
By Robin Houghton
To read more, click link below.
The Literary Review’s annual award for bad sex writing was won by the Canadian author Nancy Huston for the novel Infrared. The news of why she won is here. Many had suggested JK Rowling and EL James for the award. Home » Books » Fiction & Literature » General Infrared By Nancy Huston On receiving the award, she said: “I hope this prize will incite thousands of women to take close-up photos of their lovers’ bodies in all states of array and disarray.’’ After a childhood marked by pain, Rena Greenblatt has found the strength to build a successful career as a photographer. Like the ultrasensitive infrared film she uses, Rena sees what others don't see, and finds a form of love. By photographing men's bodies, she hopes to glimpse their souls. Away from her lover, Aziz, stuck in Florence with her infuriating stepmother and her ageing, unwell father, Rena confronts not only the masterpieces of the Renaissance but the banal inconveniences of a family holiday. At the same time, she finds herself travelling into dark and passionate memories that will lead her to a series of disturbing revelations. With exceptional flair and talent, Nancy Huston explores the links between family intimacies and our collective lives, between destruction and creation. Infrared is a story about how childhood, family, and our culture all have a direct impact on our sexuality. To read more or order at a discounted price, click link below.
I just completed reading. 'Eucalyptus' by Murray Bail.
There is a sad understory of paternalism. The father assuming ownership of the daughter and rather than teaching her independence so she can be free, he seeks to choose his replacement, her next jailer, or was that husband. Place your own interpretation on the story, the author leaves much of it open to interpretation.
There is a sad understory of paternalism. The father assuming ownership of the daughter and rather than teaching her independence so she can be free, he seeks to choose his replacement, her next jailer, or was that husband? Place your own interpretation on the story, the author leaves much of it open to interpretation, and that is the art of a good storyteller.
What an extraordinary book and story of courtship. The basic concept is simple, the story beautifully and unusually written. It would be massacred in most critiques. It is a book to open a writer's mind not force closure and conformity to the work. This is a book that will remain in my mind as a classic. I enjoyed every page. Sometimes a paragraph lasted an entire page. You need to be receptive to the author's voice to read and enjoy Eucalyptus.
This novel won the 1999 Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the 1999 Miles Franklin Award.
Poignantly beautiful, sometimes sad and forever haunting is how I will remember this book. I loved it.
In preparatory training for my four years of full time study in professional writing and publishing, I am familiarities for terminology of study. Sharing with my blog readers the basics of the useful tool of speed reading. I first heard of speed reading forty five years ago. In fact I learned several techniques at the time. It was used by a major Publishing company (adapted from Pretty, 1990) Why skim read? To find out if a book or article is worth spending time on. How do I skim read? Look at - Table of contents and index
- Abstracts of articles
- Chapter and section headings
- First and last paragraphs, and chapter summaries
- Paragraph openings (i.e., topic sentences)
- Visual materials (e.g., tables of results, figures) if appropriate
If you are seeking more information on reading techniques, this appears to be a useful book. More Reading Power 3 By Linda Jeffries, Beatrice S. Mikulecky The new edition of Reading Power 3 is enhanced by research-based methods and activities for learning vocabulary. Longer reading passages and new study-reading activities, including outlining and text marking, prepare students to enter the world of academic reading. Part 1 Extensive Reading Introduction Unit 1: New Vocabulary in Your Reading Unit 2: Fiction and Nonfiction Unit 3: Books Part 2 Vocabulary Building Introduction Unit 1: Making Good Use of the Dictionary Unit 2: Learning New Vocabulary from Your Reading Unit 3: Guessing Meaning from Context Unit 4: Word Parts Unit 5: Collocations Unit 6: Structure and Reference Part 3 Comprehension Skills Introduction Unit 1: Scanning and Previewing Unit 2: Making Inferences Unit 3: Understanding Paragraphs Unit 4: Identifying the Pattern Unit 5: Reading Longer Passages Unit 6: Skimming Part 4 Reading Fluency Introduction Unit 1: Harry Houdini: The Life of an Escape Artist Unit 2: Making a Living Unit 3: Better Lives in a Better World Answers to Practice Exercises Appendix 1: Pronunciation Key Appendix 2: Frequently Used Words in English About the Author Linda Jeffries holds a master's degree in TESOL from Boston University. She has taught reading, writing, and ESL/EFL at Boston College; Boston University; the Harvard Summer ESL Programs; the University of Opole, Poland; and the University of Bologna, Italy. She lives in Italy, near Bologna, and teaches academic reading and writing at the University of Modena. Bea Mikulecky holds a master's degree in TESOL and a doctorate in applied psycholinguistics from Boston University. In addition to teaching reading, writing, and ESL, she has worked as a teacher trainer in the Harvard University Summer ESL Program, in the Simmons College MATESL Program, and in Moscow, Russia. Bea Mikulecky is the author of A Short Course in Teaching Reading Skills. Reference & Language » Languages » English as a Second Language
I always understood what abstract art was.
I've only just come to understand what is meant by abstract as regards words. This understanding will assist me as I write, edit and critique novels.
I've never excessively used abstract words in my novel as I' have preferred to describe how a cloud rises from a valley as the early morning sun's rays strike it, than say the cloud was beautiful.
I've not been one to be obsessed by physical presence of people so my heroines have been described by skin and hair toe and physical build more than their beauty.
A word or phrase is abstract if the idea it expresses isn't tangible or material.
For example: beauty, sincerity, excellence, steadfast, loyalty.
I never thought I would become excited about a manual of style for the Australian publishing industry and the authors and editors who work with Australian literature.
No more will I need to be told how to format my grammar according to the Chicago manual of Style. I will own my own Australian style guide. I have ordered this book.
Books » Reference & Language » Writing Skills
Style Manual For Authors, Editors and Printers
By Dcita
Format:Paperback / softback, 550 pages, 6th edition Edition
Other Information: Illustrations
Published In: Australia, 19 February 2002
RRP $47.99 $41.75 Save $6.24 (13%) Free shipping Australia wide
My main reader market as Australian. I can't see many US publishers promoting books where billabongs, and bunyips, damper, and cocky's joy, feature. I may write in US English for the US market but I need my novel to be up-to-date, Australian grammar and English. I’ll be adding this book to my authors library.
No I don't dream of hansom romantic heroes for my novels I wake up shuffling words around.
I go to bed following a long edit, a session of writing, fiction reading, grammar studies, some critiquing of other people's novels and a discipline that insists I have two exercise periods in the day to keep me fit.
If I get to socialize it's a fantastic talk to a woman about the life of a Polish woman born in Germany during WWII and a little of her, fist person account history, becomes fiction as Mrs Aspie's story in a chapter in book two of my Dreaming Billabong series.
At spare moments in this busy day, I research publishing, editing, agent and manuscript competition opportunities and my forthcoming tour south.
It's two years and three years since I switched from my fifty year career as an artist and non-fiction author to writing fiction full time. In that time though necessity I've needed to study grammar and editing.
I've made a decision, the day I hitch my caravan up to begin the trip from the far north of Australia where I've been in writer's seclusion to work on my second novel of the Dreaming Billabong series for four months, I will place an order for this book. My novels are Australian.
Books » Fiction & Literature » General
The Australian Editing Handbook By Elizabeth Flann, Beryl Hill
RRP $47.99 $36.95 Save $11.04 (23%) Free shipping Australia wide
Another way to say "it took my breath away"
I held my breath, then gasped for air.
I don't mind how it is said as long as it's a literal description of the possible.
In serious literature, I don't like the physically impossible cliche. It draws me out of the story.
Everything is related to the genre it's written in. I'm developing a taste for the impossible cliche when I read it in romantic comedy. The ridiculous imagery of exaggerated cliche phrases is just one more thing I can enjoy while my mind is tuned to the humour.
The same lack of realism wouldn't work in in historical based serious crime novels. For example I try to only use cliche from the time and location in my novel in the dialogue of one of my characters to help show their character. I don't use exaggerated cliche in my narrative. It would be out of character for the work.
That's where it is hard to advise words to fit anther's work when you don't know the style, genre and times.
I would suggest adapting the alternate words to "it took my breath away," to the writing voice in your novel.
The writer's forum I am a member of has a discussion going concerning how much sex and detail about it is the right amount to include in the books they write.
One constant opinion that cropped up was that they were concerned about writing a book that might embarrass them if their seventeen year old daughter or their mother read it. The answer that seemed right to me would be that you would no more write a love or sex scene and do it well while thinking about your daughter or mother than you would be wanting to have them in the bedroom with you during a love or sex scene, so forget about them and write what seems right for your characters and story, at the time.
Well this is going to sound horribly moralistic to some but I'm from the old fashioned school who thinks that one of the things that puts humans above animals is that sex can be something beautiful, savored by two people who have developed a relationship where they love and want to please each other enough to become intimate and use the sex to show their love. That is how I am most likely to write any love/sex scene.
I don't care what other consenting adults want to do behind closed doors, I just would not read or write about anything in graphic detail. I'm well aware there is a strong market what to me is crude sex and have no issue with others writing for that market. I'll even read it to assist them in a critiquing of the words situation. I don't read sensational and sensual writing as my normal reading choice.
It interested me to read so many authors say that if they buy a romance novel and there is no sex scene in it, they feel cheated.
Others said that the skim though the book, find the sex scenes, read them and then go back to read the good bits of the book. As novels like "A Painted House," by John Grisham and "Insomnia," by Stephen King are two of my favorites, they might allude to characters having sex but do not enter the bedroom (or row of cotton in the field,) with them and the book would not be any better for pump by pump and anatomical descriptions. I sure don't feel cheated when I read good writing without a graphic sex scene.
I have no idea how graphic my sex scenes might become in the future. My characters and story will dictate this to me. I plan and plot them, however when I write, they take over and seem to write their own scenes and I release my judgment about them and give them permission to be themselves. This works for me. As the author though, my opinion is that the physical motion of sex, isn't what makes sex great or infinitely memorable.
There would be as many answers to the right way of writing a sex scene as there are attitudes to casual through to commuted relationship sex and the boundaries within that.
My advice to writers is to stay true to whatever drew you into wanting to become a writer. Don't compromise your reasons for being a writer, whatever they are. Be as steamy as is comfortable to you alone.
A novel needs to contain a good story, well written, for it to work. It will not be the sex scene alone that will make it a great read.
"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself." --Truman Capote
He took the words out of my mouth. Having had a 50+ year career as an artist before taking my writing seriously I never felt like a beginner at writing because all I read about how to create a work of good fiction paralleled all I've learned and taught about painting.
1/ Start with a plan. If you fail to plan you plan to fail. I'm not a seatster.
2/ Create a broad loose block in. That is the same as the first draft. No fiddling, detailing nor correcting at this stage.
3/ Refine. In the case of an oil painting done in the field, this might be removing the insects . This is typos, grammar errors for the writer.
Then as a painter I look for areas where I missed the canvas and I might rub the paint into those areas, though still not detailing, I'm pulling it all together, - read third and fourth drafts of the novel.
4/ Now for the detail. This is where there should be 'more look than put.' I observe composition, colour harmony, light and shade. Only now in the final phases do I tighten up with detail the most important part of the work, the part I want the view to focus on first, the bit that will draw their eye into the painting has to be perfect. That parallels having the opening line, first paragraph, fist page, first five pages, hook, elevator pitch, backcover blurb - perfect.
Then you draw the eye to the next point of interest in the painting - OK this will be the first 50 pages - are they just right, are they moving your eye, not locking it (boring) too long in the one place. Is the colour harmony repeated throughout the work (read foreshadowing for the writer) .... the parallels continue throughout the work. What you learn in one creative profession is easily applied to another.
One more aspect to all this is to know when to stop.
This was something I learned and taught in painting and needed to remember as a writer. It is why I removed 15,000 quite good words from my novel and why I am not going to include the fill in chapter I just wrote, even though it is a good fill in between what happened here and here ...it is not needed.
You only add to the painting 'what it needs.' not 'what else could I add.'
So as I wrote my first novel I felt as if I had the experience of ages in doing it and never once felt like a beginner.
Consider all your own past experiences when tackling something new to give yourself confidence as you learn the new skill and work at it.
Books » Fiction & Literature » Classics
In Cold Blood
A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
By Truman Capote
Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.
About the Author
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the south, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. By the age of fourteen he had already started writing short stories, some of which were published. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. Following his spell with the New Yorker, Capote spent two years on a Louisiana farm where he wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He lived, at one time or another, in Greece, Italy, Africa and the West Indies, and travelled in Russia and the Orient. He is the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy on its publication, Music for Chameleons (1980) and Answered Prayers (1986), all of which are published by Penguin. Truman Capote died in August 1984.
|
RSS Feed