Physical Descriptions - List of Hair Colors Hair Color List (Note: an updated and expanded version of this list appears in my 15K-word book How to Describe Hair and Skin. See below.) [First, my profound apologies to the vast majority of readers who don't steal content, but I have to state the following. This article and all content on this website belongs to Val Kovalin, copyright © Obsidianbookshelf.com, except where noted. I'll admit it – hair colors are fun, even for someone like me who advocates keeping description to a minimum. Natural human hair color comes in these basic shades: blond(e), red, light brown, dark brown, black, gray, white. Don't forget about highlights! What are the nouns that apply to people with certain hair colors? Also, sometimes words pick up additional shades of meaning over time that are irrational but exist, and you won't find these connotations listed in the dictionary. Please check for frequent updates to this list! Blond – ash Blond – bronze.
Top 10 Underrated Fantasy Stories Before 1937 Books J.R.R. Tolkien changed the face of the fantasy genre when he published “The Hobbit” in 1937 and subsequently his famous “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But with this defining moment in the genre, many of the great works that preceded Tolkien have been forgotten in time. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees Publication Date: 1926 Probably the most obscure thing I shall mention on this list, this is a rather interesting tale in an alternate world where some rather mundane people live in peace, but are interrupted by a flow of fairy fruit form the neighboring lands. The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley Publication Date: 1863 This is a children’s novel that I might not recommend for the kids, but anybody with an interest in Victorian fairy tales and a bit of controversy absolutely must pick this one up. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson Publication Date: 1908 Lost Horizon by James Hilton Publication Date: 1933 The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald Publication Date: 1872
The 50 Books Everyone Needs to Read, 1963-2013 The thing about reading is this: it takes a long time. There are innumerable books in the world, and many more good ones than can be read by any mortal in a lifetime. It’s hard to choose — especially if you’re a slow reader. So, to go along with the list of the best albums from 1963-2013, here you will find a single must-read book from each of the last 50 years. 1963 — The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath’s only novel manages to be both elegant and filled with raw, seething emotion – no small feat, and not the least of the reasons the reading world is still obsessed with her. Also recommended: Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak; The Group, Mary McCarthy; V., Thomas Pynchon; Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut; The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
6 Rules for a Great Story from Barnaby Conrad and Snoopy by Maria Popova “And remember: Always aim for the heart!” You might recall Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life (public library), which gave us Ray Bradbury’s wise words on rejection. To recap: Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz, son of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, asked 30 famous authors and entertainers to each respond to a favorite Snoopy comic strip with a 500-word essay on the triumphs and tribulations of the writing life. Try to pick the most intriguing place in your piece to begin.Try to create attention-grabbing images of a setting if that’s where you want to begin.Raise the reader’s curiosity about what is happening or is going to happen in an action scene.Describe a character so compellingly that we want to learn more about what happens to him or her.Present a situation so vital to our protagonist that we must read on.And most important, no matter what method you choose, start with something happening! Conrad is the author of The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction.
MetaMaus: Inside the Making of the Comic that Made History by Maria Popova Why comics? Why mice? Twenty-five years ago, beloved comic artist and editor Art Spiegelman published Maus: A Survivor’s Tale — his cult-classic comic book about the Holocaust based on the biography of Spiegelman’s father, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and paved the way for comics as a medium for nonfiction. Today, Spiegelman releases the highly anticipated MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus — a fascinating look at the thinking, tinkering, and creative process behind the making of the iconic comic. The book seems to loom over me like my father once did, and journalists and students still want answers to the same few questions: Why comics? The book comes with a digitized reference copy of The Complete Maus in the form of a bonus DVD, linked to a deep archive of audio interviews with his survivor father, historical documents, and a wealth of Spiegelman’s private notebooks and sketches. Share on Tumblr
How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life By the end of this post you will have a nagging urge to use an excel spreadsheet. Don’t make that face—I know you’re a writer and not a data analyst. Or if you are a data analyst—I get that you’re on this blog to get away from your day job. But guess what? At the suggestion of Randy Ingermason—the creator of the Snowflake Method—I listed all of the scenes in my novel in a nice little Google spreadsheet. It changed my novel-writing life, and doing the same will change yours too. Creating a scene list changed my novel-writing life, and doing the same will change yours too. Scene Lists Help You Plan I tried to write a novel once before without planning in advance. I used the Snowflake Method, which consists of several steps to designing a novel that we can discuss at a later date. Today we’re focusing on a particular step: the creation of a scene list. What is a scene list? It’s literally a list of the scenes in your novel in an excel spreadsheet. Column 1: POV. 1. 2. 3. Scene Lists Help You Edit
11,800 People Sharing in the Existential Agony of Writing One truth underlies the sprawling, sometimes contentious, freebie-filled Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference: Making a life in literature isn't easy. David W. Brown Many have observed that writers are rejected for a living. Years of laboring over some manuscript can precede a crucible of: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. (And this is to say nothing of the many works represented and then purchased but somehow orphaned through no fault of the author's, moldering in a publisher’s basement filing cabinet.) Those not in or around the business do not necessarily know this. The frustrations of the job are not new. It’s nice to be around a group of people who understand this lonely business of creative writing and the vexing challenge of navigating an inhospitable industry. Speaking of paying the bills: Money is no small matter indeed for a profession whose practitioners are not known for being encumbered by garbage bags filled with cash. "Horrifying" "Bad" "Terrible" "Bad to terrible"
500 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook Download 800 free eBooks to your Kindle, iPad/iPhone, computer, smart phone or ereader. Collection includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including works by Asimov, Jane Austen, Philip K. Dick, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Neil Gaiman, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf & James Joyce. Also please see our collection 1,000 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free, where you can download more great books to your computer or mp3 player. Learn how to load ebook (.mobi) files to your Kindle with this video Religious Texts Assorted Texts This list of Free eBooks has received mentions in the The Daily Beast, Computer World, Gizmodo and Lifehacker.
How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word Find a Subject You Care About Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. Do Not Ramble, Though I won’t ramble on about that. Keep It Simple As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. Have the Guts to Cut It may be that you, too, are capable of making necklaces for Cleopatra, so to speak. Sound like Yourself The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. Say What You Mean to Say Pity the Readers