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Tag: writers
On our Love-Hate Relationship with Punctuation… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
By Stephen Spector on Literary Hub site: Let’s face it: writing isn’t a natural act. Our ancestors may have started speaking between 50,000 and 2 million years ago, but it was only 5,000 years ago that people started to write. Three thousand more years passed before they began to use a system of little points […]
via On our Love-Hate Relationship with Punctuation… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
9 Tips For Using Fiction Techniques When Writing Memoir…
Can fiction techniques help you writing that memoir?
By Michael Mohr 
on The Creative Penn:
Memoir is much more than just writing down an aspect of your life story.
Intro by Joanna Penn:
In fact, if you do that, it’s unlikely that anyone will read it. Because people want a character they can empathize with and a narrative arc that follows a transformation, as well as immersive setting and emotion that help them live within the story.
All aspects of writing fiction.
In today’s article, Michael Mohr explains some tips for using fiction techniques in your memoir.
Memoir should be written very much like a novel
The Soldiers’ Pocket Books That Legitimized Paperbacks
Even though pamphlets and softcover books have been available in Europe since the 16th century, US readers looked down on them until well into the 20th century. As a recent Atlas Obscura post by Cara Giaimo explains, without a mass-market distribution model in place, it was difficult to make money selling inexpensive books.
Although certain brands succeeded by partnering with department stores, individual booksellers preferred to stock their shops with sturdier, better-looking hardbacks, for which they could charge higher prices. Even those who were trying to change the public’s mind bought into this prejudice: one paperback series, Modern Age Books, disguised its offerings as hardcovers, adding dust jackets and protective cardboard sleeves. They, too, couldn’t hack it in the market, and the company folded in the 1940s.
Wartime Reading
Soldiers in Virginia wrangle with hardcover books donated through the VBC. Image via Atlas Obscura.
Then, war came. In September of…
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Poetry Day!
POETRY DAY IS INTERNATIOAL, there are readings here in France and I have no doubt there are others…
Calling ALL scribes! This is a terrific opportunity for you to let your voice be heard, as Saturday, October 7th is RANDOM ACTS of POETRY DAY Whoa! Are they sure they know what they are doing here? Unleashing bards and bardettes from all over the world to explode with poetic joy, any and every where they […]
via Random Acts of Poetry Day October 7 — Annette Rochelle Aben
To Serve And Correct!
Originally posted on Book Editing: 1. ACTIVE VOICE Active voice is a type of sentence or clause in which the subject performs or causes the action expressed by the verb. Contrast with Passive Voice below. Example: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice…
via The top 25 grammatical terms you should know — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog
Tips…
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make […]
via Writers Tips #102: 17 Tips from The Careful Writer — WordDreams…
Old books: paper or ebook
“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to read new books,” and I hollered “Comrade” to whoever owned it before me.” – Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road
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Old books: paper or ebook
I like meeting
And old paperback
Like an illicit lover
No fresh from printer’s glare
No stiff cover
So comfortable the invitation
Easily pages turn
Consummate host for this reader
With scant euros to burn
Each book that I discover
A long awaited friend
Its secrets I’ll uncover
Its binding I shall bend
Not disrespectful
au contraire, mon cher
Treasure in my hands
Riches beyond compare
I’ll treasure every syllable
That twists about my tongue
Cautious of each coffee spill
A drop of wine or two
Read, read, read – take your fill
Bisous,
Léa
My apologies for the rhyming, something I rarely do and never intentionally.
Hemingway – advice for a writer
While reading Hemingway, again, I stumbled upon the following quote and couldn’t resist sharing it. Though Hemingway was addressing writing and writers I believe it applies to all creative endeavours.
“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and bend the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused.”
– Ernest Hemingway, from his Preface – The First Forty-Nine Stories
Bisous,
Léa
mirror mirror
If you are ever short of inspiration, I recommend a visit to Creative Bursts for a Writing challenge: One morning, your mirror starts talking to you. Write about this. – Sandy Ackers at CREATIVE BURSTS: sandy@sandyackers.com
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“It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.” -Henry David Thoreau
–
MIRROR MIRROR
*
like the acidic womb
you were delivered from
i’ve reiterated all your flaws
humiliation feeding your soul
fuelling your tears
shattering your heart
*
no conscience bothered me
so use to reflecting the environment
deceptively, i reflect light
while in truth, shallow, cold, judgemental
shaming that tiny red face
quivering chin
eyes twin faucets of tears
no beauty, no value here
*
believing my lies
you sank deeper, inward
hanging your head
turning from my glare, unaware
lies, judgement come from ignorance
my own blindness unquestioned
you looked for others in pain
focusing on their wounds
helping them heal
*
you have learned
to look deeper
reading eyes and hearts
of others
as i could never do
finding beauty that escapes me
learning to see it in yourself
confident a mirror cannot be
believed on face value
*
bisous,
léa
poetry, photos and musings oh my! 