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Posts Tagged ‘literature’

The Ultimate Guide on How to Improve Your Writing Through Reading:

How is your reading and writing going?

Choosing the Right Books to Read to Enhance Writing Skills:

Some of the books an author should be reading is the genre they are writing. But it can become somewhat tiresome. I enjoy many different genres to read and feel that learning should be ever ongoing. I will read fiction and nonfiction. Adult and children’s books. I will also read educational books which teach writing skills. All of these books are good and help a writer improve their skills.

Developing Your Own System of Taking Notes While Reading to Help with Writing Projects:

One aspect to keep in mind while you read is to take notes. These notes do not need to be lengthy but should include where you found the advice or writing technique from. I have made the mistake of taking notes from some of the books I have read and forgot to write down where I saw the writing technique. Sometimes keeping track of where you found your information is helpful when looking back at the notes. Note-taking is a great way to organize your thoughts on what you find helpful for your writing. Logging what you read and when is also helpful because this allows you to see what you enjoyed about the book also.

Start Using the Power of Reading Today To Take Your Writing to the Next level:

Many authors who I have spoken to will either stay away from reading the genre they read in or they will delve into it and take notes. But reading anything helps keep an author’s mind on sentence structure, spelling, tone, and plot. These are needed to create a book worth reading. Happy reading!

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I know I have covered procrastinating before.  (See “Procrastinating” post: 2011/09/08.)  And I even went so far as to think that I am the only writer who does procrastinate.  But now I find out that this phenomenon is not solely my problem but many other writers as well.  Attending countless writers conferences and hearing agents and editors all say the same thing about the problems of writers I just did not connect the dots till now.  I read an article posted by friend and it says that procrastinating is something all writers face. This is should not be a new concept but let’s just say I was a little slow to finally grasp the connection until I read this.  The article was spot on with all the problems I have and I am so glad to see I am not alone.  So for all I would like to say…..

“Hello, my name is Jessica.  I am a procrastinator.”

Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinator

 

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Cover of "Ender's Game (Ender Quartet)"

Cover of Ender’s Game (Ender Quartet)

Being a fan of Orson Scott Card I have read many of his books.  So how did I miss this one?  Or the fact that it is a series?  The only reason I even knew about it was because of the movie coming out later on this year.
I loved this book and was shocked at the end.  Who would have guess?  But I kept wondering. Card takes a young child and puts him in adult situations making serious decisions. Very thought-provoking and intense scenes with bullies and fights.  Children are so innocent and usually make decisions based on what they have seen other children do.  Ender Wiggins was a genius and did things that some adults would never even thought of doing. I was glad in the end when Ender was able to reconnect with his sister.  It would have been a sad life if not.
Now I can’t wait to read the next books in the series. Card has a way with words giving them a deeper meaning.  Philosophy classes or even theorists could spend years psychoanalyzing his work.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3252247-jessica-wilson”>View all my reviews

 

Does anyone have a favorite Orson Scott Card novel?

 

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I present to you, Olan Rogers

I present to you, Olan Rogers (Photo credit: ryan.nagelmann)

How to Know You’re a Writer (In GIF Form) | Nathan Bransford, Author.

You know when someone is pretty darn awesome when they also think that Olan Rogers is hilarious.  I just loved this blog post by Nathan.  He made me laugh and wonder how the heck did he know the websites I visit all the time.  So funny and true!

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Cover of "The Awakening: And Other Storie...

Cover via Amazon

Nathan Bransford, Author.

I agree with this article but there is a big misconception about authors.  There are good authors who are not recognized because their work is not mainstream popular reading.  The decisions to read and study certain literature in a canon is determined, in my opinion, by political and cultural preferences.  Whatever is popular now is what people want to read about.  There were books held back from the public (like Kate Chopin‘s The Awakening) because of people in power found their work offensive.  Literature is a fickle thing.  I don’t know a lot of people that can actually agree about what should be studied in college literature classes or read as entertainment.  As a society we are like a leaf apt to go where the wind blows us.

The new writers and authors are flooding the market with self-published books and e-books.  There are all kinds of writers.    Sure we don’t have a lot of Mark Twains or Edgar Allen Poes’ anymore.  But shouldn’t we find some that are still worthy to quote?  Obviously the Noble Prize in Literature is still finding candidates to hand out the award to.  Even the Newberry Award is given out every year.  So there is still some talent out there.

Mark Twain statue

Mark Twain statue (Photo credit: stevebkennedy)

People will read what they want to read.  As writers we just need to write what we feel.  Whether it will make it into a canon or not is up to those who select it.

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FrankensteinFrankenstein by Mary Shelley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mary Shelley is profoundly an inspiration to writers that came after her. Reading Frankenstein was hard to understand with the words she used. It is written in comparison to something Charles Dickens wrote. There was prose and style of the time era. Imagination wasn’t closeted to just a small area but encompassed a whole theology of religion and philosophy of the universe. She brought about the question of where a soul comes from. The horrors in the book grip you until the very end when you sigh with relief it is over.

View all my reviews

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Be on the lookout for a feature story.  Starring (hopefully) someone from this writing world ….  famous-authors

Also the news on e-books doesn’t look great according to some.  Authors could be hit with the crazy price cut of their ebooks by companies who want to sell used e-books.  Is it possible?  Could readers really tell the difference between used and new digital books?   Read the full article here:  Used e-books  or  at  What the…

Three children, with bare feet, stand waiting on the hot sand. My middle-grade fictional book is now ready for editing.  Hunting for the right editor at the right price is a gamble. Anyone who knows a good editor for children’s literature, please shoot me a line.

Editing, illustrating and writing tirelessly on my picture book.  I am getting closer to  self-publishing, or cutting the cord, with this baby.

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Odd Apocalypse (Odd Thomas, #5)Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoy reading a Dean Koontz novel. And I especially enjoy the Odd Thomas series. Except for this last installment. There was no humor like the first books so this novel left a bad taste in my mouth. It was dark and dreary. Which I can understand just from reading the title. But there was no real happy ending, just a chapter closed, and the bad guys dead. The character Annamarie is still not resolved in this latest book. And Odd keeps hinting at the fact that we are reading his memoirs. So is he dead? When do we come to the conclusion of this monumental event?
The literature side left me wanting. I know I have seen some better writing and there were a few good lines in the book when Odd was reflecting on his situation and became philosophical. But overall the language of the bad guys and the few parts of the dialect were poor at minimum.
The plot was interesting but hard to understand until the very end when Koontz explains in more detail what the heck is going on. It took me longer to read because of a slow start and Odd always reflecting back to the past. Skip those parts and get right to the meat of the book. I wish I could have liked it more.

View all my reviews

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At the last writer’s conference I had received some feedback on a manuscript from an editor from HarperCollins.  She gave me more than a page of great insight to help me write the best picture book out there.  As I sat in the conference reading her notes the lady next to me said, “Did you get any critiques back?”  I answered ‘yes’.  She then wanted to know if the critique I received was nice also.  So I let her read mine and she said, “This is really good.”  We talked about where we were in our careers and where we wanted to be in the future.  I found that I could talk to her like a comrade in arms.  We both loved the conference and felt it was empowering and had a lot of great information.

When I went to my critque group the others in the group read the critique and there were words said like “this is golden” and “oh my gosh” and so on.  I knew that the critique was good but I thought everyone at the conference was just being nice.  But now I know that these words of encouragement from the editor were more than just words.

So I took the advice of the editor and tweaked just a few parts in the picture book manuscript.  Now it is so polished it could be the sword “Sting”.  I just knew that I could send it somewhere and get it published.

Well I sent it to HarperCollins and recieved a very useful rejection letter from an editor there.  It hurt a little more than the form or generic rejections I have received in the past.  But I see now that everyone is entitled to their opinion.  Instead of getting upset I have deceided to put all my energy into finding the right avenue to have my picture book published.  Whether that be traditional or independent.

The world is changing and we are not seperated by countries or bodies of water.  Technology has made the world we “live in a planetary civilization”.  (p. 459, Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder)  Becoming published is easier than it has ever been before and the time is right for anyone to get their work out there.  People all over the world can buy e-books a lot easier than print.

So I am taking my writing to the next phase, and like someone told me recently to “just publish it.”  So keep an eye out for a children’s book with my name on it.

amazon_kindle_1118

Tell me what you think of the publishing industry?

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Goodreads | Jessica Wilsons review of Hard Times.

Even though Charles Dickens makes for heavy reading it is also thought provoking.

 

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