Ph'nglui Search Fhtagn! What makes a great Diary It's 10 years since the death of Alan Clark - a politician who found distinction in his diary style, if not his career. What makes a great diary and why is the journal such a compelling way of telling a story? Ten years ago the former Conservative MP Alan Clark died of a brain tumour aged 71. But it was not his political career that he will be remembered for, rather his three volumes of published diaries. As the satirist Craig Brown put it in a review: "The skill in the diaries and memoirs of most politicians lies in the delicate airbrushing out of their faults and weaknesses. For the political obsessives, the diaries opened up with breathtaking frankness the status anxiety, vicious backbiting, and fleeting moments of triumph and despair amid the general tedium of being a minister. But in the end the politics was not the main selling point. It was part Brideshead Revisited, part the Westminster Hour, part Adrian Mole. Knitting naratives Prostate or prostrate? So is the blog, the new diary?
About | Write for Your Life My name is Iain Broome and I’m an author and freelance writer, editor and content producer. My first novel is called A is for Angelica, published by Legend Press and available from all good book shops. About the site This is a site for writers, readers and anyone interested in publishing, technology and what’s it’s like to be a professional wordsmith. I started writing here in December 2008 and the whole shebang used to be called Write for Your Life. I publish articles, interviews, videos, and co-host a weekly podcast, which is part of the marvellous 70Decibels network. That said, I’m not one for making assumptions and telling you what to do. So I’m not here to tell you how to write, but I do want to get you thinking about what you do and how you do it. Subscribe for free So that you don’t have to head back here every day, you can join roughly 2300 subscribers and have updates come to you: More about me Find me elsewhere
How to Revise an Email So That People Will Read It - David Silverman - HarvardBusiness.org by David Silverman | 4:35 PM April 14, 2009 “People think that the first draft is the big event and that revision is cleaning up afterward. But the first draft is really setting up the chairs, tables, and cups, and revision isn’t cleaning up after the party, it is the party.” “All first drafts are terrible. “What comes out unfiltered from anyone’s mind is mud.” The first two quotations come from writing professors whose names I’ve since forgotten (and they were quoting other people whom they’d forgotten). I’ve found that for your average email, the number of revisions largely depends on the number of recipients. 1 to 5 recipients = 2 to 4 revisions 5 to 10 recipients = 8 to 12 revisions Company-wide or to Executive Committee = 30 to 50 revisions Even the simplest missive to one person benefits from a couple of extra passes, and if it’s going to the management committee, expect everyone to have changes (and changes to those changes). Here’s a checklist to consider when revising: 1. 2. 3. 4.
The Write A Book With Me Rules Here is the tiny list of “official” rules for playing “Write A Book With Me.” You can work on any project you have going at any stage of completion.You shoot for a minimum of 250 words a day, five days a week.You do NOT flog yourself to catch up on missed words for days you did not write. You NEVER owe more than 250 words in a day, no matter if you missed a full week or a full month of writing.You acknowledge that all this has to be is fun—it isn’t work, a competition, or a form of self-flagellation—and if knocking out your words at this pace stops being fun, you walk away with no guilt.Your aim is to finish your book. What you do with it after that is up to you. NOTE: You can join in at any time, and you can start anywhere in any project you have going or want to begin. I’ll work on whatever book (or course) I’m writing at the time. BEGINNER: You can do the minimum words for as many days a week as I work (generally five). You can do this. Keeping In Touch Where To Post Your Progress
75 Books Every Writer Should Read Whether you want to make writing your career or just want to know how to improve your writing so that you can pass your college courses, there is plenty of reading material out there to help you get inspired and hone your skills. Here’s a collection of titles that will instruct you on just about every aspect of writing, from the basics of grammar to marketing your completed novel, with some incredibly helpful tips from well-known writers themselves as well. Writing Basics These books address things like structure, plot, descriptions and other basic elements of any story. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers: You can improve the quality of your writing by adding a mythical quality to them with advice and insight from this book. Advice from Authors Who better to give advice on writing than those who have made a name for themselves doing it? On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: This is widely regarded as one of the best books for any aspiring author to read.
short stories at east of the web A game of Scrabble has serious consequences. - Length: 4 pages - Age Rating: PG - Genre: Crime, Humor A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger. - Length: 7 pages - Genre: Fiction, Humor ‘Bloody hell!’ - Genre: Humor Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. - Length: 3 pages Henry pours more coal onto the hearth as a gust of wind rattles through the cracked window frame. - Length: 14 pages - Genre: Horror ulissa Ye relished all the comfortable little routines and quietude defining her part-time job at The Bookery, downtown’s last small, locally-owned bookstore. - Length: 8 pages - Age Rating: U The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. - Length: 15 pages - Age Rating: 18 Corporal Earnest Goodheart is crouched in a ditch on the edge of an orchard between Dunkirk and De Panne. - Genre: Fiction - Length: 20 pages
6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book Shevonne Polastre is a freelance Technical Writer who assists companies and non-profits. She authors FreeAgentWriter, a blog about the technology world. Online self-publishing services have given users the tools they need to create, publish and promote their work. These sites allow authors to bypass the process of finding an agent and pitching to publishing houses, a venture that can take months, if not years. Here are six great sites that will help you publish your work, guaranteeing you a published book that can be sold via different outlets, such as Amazon. Have another service to suggest? 1. Lulu allows you to create a variety of books, but also lets you develop digital media. Before finalizing the book, you are able to download and print a proof of the book, and when your book is ready, you are able to sell it in your customized storefront. What makes it unique: Lulu provides an FTP site for uploading files larger than 300MB. 2. 3. 4. 5. Pricing: $0 6. Pricing: Prices start at $299
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Chapter One A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. "And this," said the Director opening the door, "is the Fertilizing Room." Bent over their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing silence, the absent-minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle, of absorbed concentration. "Just to give you a general idea," he would explain to them. "To-morrow," he would add, smiling at them with a slightly menacing geniality, "you'll be settling down to serious work. Meanwhile, it was a privilege. Tall and rather thin but upright, the Director advanced into the room. "Bokanovsky's Process," repeated the Director, and the students underlined the words in their little notebooks. Mr.
Ten rules for writing fiction Elmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin 1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. 2 Avoid prologues: they can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. 3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. 4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely. 5 Keep your exclamation points under control. 6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". 7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. 8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. 9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. 10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Diana Athill Margaret Atwood 1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes.
How to Write for Fiction Magazines: Make Money With Short Stories and Fiction Writing | Suite101.com From sci-fi anthologies to literary flash fiction, there are hundreds of opportunities for fiction writers to get published. Most writers start off with little to no pay, but with patience and dedication, it's possible to earn a second income writing fiction. Here are a few tips for freelance writers seeking print and online magazines that might publish their stories. How to Find Fiction Magazines The fastest way to find specific types of fiction publications is through a search engine, such as Google. Whether online or print, most magazines will have a website that will help give the writer an idea of what type of stories they are interested in publishing. Occasionally, fiction magazines will post a call for submission on job websites such as Craig's List. Aspiring writers should also consider starting a blog about their work. What Fiction Magazine Editors Want Before querying a magazine, writers should first research the publication carefully. Earn Money as a Fiction Writer