When you first become a writer the first piece of advice you hear is, “Read!” After you’ve been at it for a few years, maybe have a few pieces published, maybe not, the most common piece of advice is still “Read!” Read inside your genre. Read outside your genre. Read style guides and how-to books. Read the classics. Read pop-literature…. Read more »
In 2015, 18-year-old blogger Gweneth Batemen conducted a personal experiment: when men on social media complimented her on her appearance she would acknowledge that what they said was true. The men would usually revoke the compliment as if Batemen’s confirmation somehow voided the fact that she was physically attractive. Whether she was polite or snarky to the people in question,… Read more »
One of my favorite tools of writing is subtext. I don’t know how widely known or used it really is because I didn’t learn about it until my junior year of college. Subtext is a thread that runs through a writer’s work that punctuates major points and/or usually underscores the whole purpose of the story. To put it in laymen… Read more »
Blogging isn’t my day job, but it is my passion and my super power. I am like Clark Kent in my office, doing spreadsheets and going to meetings. And then…BAM!…book blogging superhero. It may not sound like a very exciting super power, but I can be at a Wizard’s school one day and in the court of Henry the Eighth… Read more »
All writers agree that reviews are important. The number of reviews independent books and stories receive on vendor websites impacts where those books are seen and advertised. The more reviews, the higher the rank and broader the profile. There are many, many reviewers and sites offering a chance to earn a review. And it can be tough to gain a… Read more »
Am I a Critical Reader? Despite what people may think, doing an honest and comprehensive review of a book isn’t as easy as it may sound. Sure, anyone can say, “Oh, that was a great book.” Or, “I hated that author and will never read their books again.” But there’s so much more to it than that. A reviewer has… Read more »
Romance. You see it everywhere, in movies, tv shows, plays, books. Especially books. Now, I don’t know about you, but personally, I am a lover of the Fantasy genre, and I expect epic battles and torn worlds and little limitations on creativity for races (werewolves, vampires etc.) and alliances between worlds. I mean, you could literally get away with anything because it’s fantasy. I… Read more »
Despite popular mockery and academic criticism, it continues to outsell every genre, including Classic Literature, year after year. In 2014 alone, Americans spent 1.08 billion dollars on these books and it has sparked some the most people, and most hated, franchises in the last ten years with no signs of slowing down. I’m, of course, talking about Romance: A genre… Read more »
The picture above is me. My father is a fair-skinned black man and my mother is an EXTREMELY fair-skinned white woman, which is why I look the way I do. Due to my mixed heritage, I have a very complicated relationship with my unbelievably curly hair. When it grows, it doesn’t get long, it gets big. And by big… Read more »
Young Adult Genre: Not just for young adults? This is my first guest post ever and before I get started on my topic of the day, I just want to thank Ashley from Truth about Books by A Fae for inviting me to write for her blog! So. My topic is actually a question that I’m going to answer: Why… Read more »
Inspiration for writing by Jay @ Escape BetweenThe Covers Writer’s block can happen at any point in time. Sometimes you might not have the right idea, or you aren’t sure how to phrase it. It is the most frustrating thing that can happen to us as writers. Yet I’ve learned that we, from time to time, force ourselves into these… Read more »
Wondering if it had improved any with age in the forty-five years since I garnered my gentleman’s “C” on a book report from an English teacher likely being generous, I again cracked open The Old Man and the Sea. While my first reading of a fish story about the one that got away bored me to tears, or maybe only… Read more »
Sometimes writing feels like swimming in circles: you can make it out of the shallow waters but are too afraid to go to the deep end. The blazing sun is blasting high above you. You set out to write every day. You are determined to get that poem down even after a long day at work. But then you notice… Read more »
