Monthly Archives: December 2017

Writing Resource Recommendation

Hello Fiction Lovers!

This week I thought I’d talk about a writing resource that has been really helpful to me: Writing Excuses. Writing excuses is a podcast that has 12 seasons so far that covers everything you could ever want to know about writing a book. It’s hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Taylor, Dan Wells, and Mary Robinette Kowal and they cover everything from POV to world building to characterization to publishing. It’s also interesting because each of the hosts–as well as the guest speakers they sometimes have–write in different genres so you can get perspectives that you wouldn’t normally hear. They try to keep each episode around 15 minutes which makes it easier to have time to listen to it and they give a writing prompt at the end of every episode. They will also promote a book every week. I’ve found some really good books through those recommendations so I would encourage you to make a list of the ones that sound interesting to you and read them when you have time.

Here’s the link to the Writing Excuses website: http://www.writingexcuses.com/start-here/

I hope that you all give Writing Excuses a try or let me know if you already listen to it and what your favorite episode is so far. Please let me know if you have any questions and have a good week!

Rereading

Hello Fiction Lovers!

So lately I’ve been thinking about reading some of the books on my shelf again and made me realize how little I’ve reread books in the past few years. I used to be better about rereading books, but now I tend only to reread my top five or so books and even then I’ll skip to my favorite scenes in the book. I guess my perspective switched from wanting to immerse myself in the world again and delighting in finding out what I missed the first time to feeling like I already remember everything that happened in a book I already read and craving something new. Has that happened to you at all? I am starting to find a balance between reading old books and finding new ones, I think, and enjoying both experiences. I’ve learned that if I listen to a book I’ve already read on Audible I won’t skip through it and that experiencing the book in a different way helps me pick out the things I didn’t remember or realize from the first time I read it. It’s helping me realize that I really don’t remember a lot of what happened in the books I read years and that reading them again can be like reading them for the first time–with just a tad more insight into what might happen.

I’ve also started rereading more books because when I get in the mood for a certain type of book (romantic fantasy, for example) the same books that I’ve already read pop up, and it can be difficult to find new ones even though I know that thousands of books get published every year. Do you have difficulty finding new books as well? Also, if you have any recommendations I’d appreciate it if you put them in the comments. It would be interesting to see your favorites and what you all are reading. I’ve been listening to the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher on Audible and it’s been pleasantly surprising to see how much I didn’t remember and fun to try to make connections based off of what I did remember.

In short, I guess, is that I would recommend rereading some books along with reading new ones. It’s fun to rediscover what made you love a book/series in the first place and to realize that sometimes your memories of a book don’t actually do it justice.

Thank you all for reading this post and I hope you have a great week! Again, please let me know if you have any recommendations for books to read in the comments or feel free to post your own thoughts on rereading books. Also, please let me know if you have any questions about writing or fiction books.

Favorite Quotes

Hello Fiction Lovers!

For this week I thought I’d share some of my favorite quotes about writing. Whenever I see them I start thinking about how I can write better and/or these quotes make me want to write. So without further ado, here they are:

“If there is a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

–Toni Morrison

“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that simple and that hard.”

–Neil Gaiman

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

–Thomas Mann

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

–W. Somerset Maugham

“Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e,  do not cave into endless requests to have ‘essential’ and ‘long overdue’ meetings on those days.”

–J. K. Rowling

“Have a point.”

–Phillip Round (My Lit. Professor)

Most of these are classics that I’ve seen time and again when I’m looking up stuff about writing, but even with that repetition they still hold true for me and don’t get old. Do you have quotes or sayings that stand up to the test of time as well? Let me know in the comments. Also, if you have any questions feel free to ask me those as well and I hope you all have a good week!