Day 11 – A book you hated
Well. There are a couple of books that fit this bill… if you search through my one and two star ratings on GoodReads, you’ll find them. This one in particular was terrible, and I didn’t understand why it had so many four star reviews!
So I was over on my Tumblr doing this meme and then I was like…..why am I not posting these on my blog, you know, the internet space I am paying for? And so then I smacked myself like I coulda had a V8.
So anyway, I am going to start with Day 10 here. Days 1-9 can be found on my Tumblr as well as the rest of the days going forward so you can follow wherever you please!
I was going to go with Pride and Prejudice because I do so love Ms. Jane Austen, but I decided to go with my fave book of all time, To Kill a MockingBird:
I can’t even tell you anymore why this is my favorite book. It might have been the first classic I ever read, something I really enjoyed in high school and whenever I think of a really great book, this one comes to mind. In fact, I may re-read this soon. It’s been forever since I read it last.
From Goodreads:
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
Also, yes I am quite alive. I have been alternately busy, bored out of my mind, uninspired, and writing up a storm. I now have an idea for my Secret Santa Story Exchange project and I’m trudging my way through a new serial story that I’ve started at the archive.
I have read 43 books toward my Goodreads goal of 50 books read during 2011. SO CLOSE! I’m confident I’ll be able to finish since I have some time off coming up for the holidays. I’m excited about actually achieving that goal.
Toward the end of the year I think I am going to try to count up all my words and see what I produced this year. I was initially going for 350K, but I dropped out of that challenge. I still want to see what I managed to churn out.
A brief note before I post: Day three of the 30 Day Writing challenge is up on my Tumblr! If you’re participating by blog or Tumblr please let me know so I can follow!
So, today we are discussing building a library on the craft of writing. And I have a confession to make: I buy writing books all the time but don’t read them. I have several books of writing exercises but don’t really make use of them. It hasn’t been a medium that has been effective for me… it’s that feeling of flipping through a book and realizing it’s in a language you can’t read. In fact, I become overwhelmed and quite stressed out after reading them because I feel like I have no idea how to apply what I’ve just read to something I’m currently writing. I am much more of a writing blog reader than I am a writing book reader, though I do have a couple of writing books I like:
*waves to BlogLand*
I have been a bit absent this week. Mostly because I didn’t have much to say and I’m not one to post just for posting’s sake. And, as Sierra Godfrey mentioned in a great post this week, readers don’t really care what your excuses are for not blogging; nor do they care for silly filler posts. I happen to completely agree, so I don’t do them.
It has been a busy month for me though. Over at the Fan Fiction archive, we have been running a month long challenge. Writers sign up for a specific day and on that day, they post a completed story of 1,000 words or more. Once it is posted, it’s my job as Challenge Master (I just made that name up for myself) to publicize the author and their story all day. Everyday. On top of also running a fansite for a music group, my life outside of writing/ reading is pretty active.
And then there’s that. I’ve not done a whole lot of writing, lately. I wrote two stories for the aforementioned challenge. Both got pretty small reactions, but that they got comments at all is great, I suppose. A friend and I were discussing this phenomenon a few weeks ago, where when I posted stories in the past, I got lots of comments and lately I get very few. I started to worry that I lost my touch, my mojo, my writing fu. We discovered, though, that readers seem to like the chase. They like waiting for an update and slowly allowing themselves to identifywith the characters. When I write a story, however, I finish it and then I post it, in case I want to change/clarify something later. I can’t go back and change something I have already posted. And then I dump it on the archive and people read it all in one sitting, in one fell swoop and don’t feel as close to the characters as they would if I had spaced it out.
What it all comes down to is that I am impatient. I want people to read it all right now. I’m not much of a tease. Working on it, though!
I posted a short piece for the Story Fix Peer Review Page and then sent my friends and followers over there to harass and/or comment on the post. It turned out pretty well and I feel like I got some good advice from the writing community. And a few “wow”s, which… I’m not going to lie, felt really great. REALLY great. The piece wasn’t torn apart and I feel like it was a good representation of my writing.
I have been doing a lot of reading. I’m doing the GoodReads Reading Challenge. I committed to reading 50 books this year. I’m at 30 and I am 2 books behind. I’m really tempted to pick some short novellas and finish them to boost my count, but I feel like that would be cheating, so I am doing my best to stay on top of my TBR pile. My hiatus from the written word hurt me a bit but I am rapid and voracious reader. I was five books behind! In the last month I have read: Continue reading
Haven’t done this in awhile. Back when I had my breakdown I stopped doing everything, including reading. I committed to reading 50 books this year and I am behind by about four books, so I am back in the saddle.
Just finished:
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones - incredibly compelling read. The first part sets the scene… part two sort of blew the top off of my head. I just kept turning pages to find out what else was going to happen, while biting my nails and trying not to blink. Fantastic book, my fave from Ms. Jones, though I did really enjoy The Untelling.
Recently started:
Snowy Night Seduction by Arianna Hart- Just started this one, lightly paranormal. I’m starting to be able to stand a bit of the genre but I’ll never be a twilight/fairy prince/zombie apocalypse reader.
Married 2 Struggle by Varrsity -Suggested to me by a twitter follower. I’ve read the first few pages and I’m captivated. Can’t wait to dig in!
Up Next:
The Lies That Bind by D.L. Sparks- For some reason when I discover an author, I am compelled to read everything they’ve written. I follow Ms. Sparks on twitter and pre-ordered her next book, but how can I read that one when I haven’t read this one?!
I’ve recently added a ton of Pearl Cleage to my list… I have two eBooks from her that I’ll start soon. Looking forward to it.
I’m supposed to be reading one “writing craft” book a month. Meh. They just don’t really tell me anything. I do have the Write Great Fiction Series that I haven’t finished, so I can leaf through that, I guess. I just don’t really get much from reading books. I get far more from blogs and from practice.
Those are my Friday Reads! What’re yours?
Hope everyone plans to have a fantastic weekend!
Yeah. I meant to post yesterday but what had happened was…
Sometimes I just don’t have much to say, or I have too much to say and I don’t feel like typing it out. There’s only so many times I can say ‘I”m working on two things and they are going okay and also I’m pretty sure that I suck as a writer but then again I think I’m pretty good.” It gets hard to even remember that week after week. So, I don’t blog to blog, I blog when I have something to say.
Finding something to say is the problem. So, on WIP Wednesdays we talk about progress on our current works. Well. New Project is sitting exactly where it has been sitting for weeks. It’s just not coming together and I don’t know what to do with it, really.
I wrote a ficlet (very short fanfic) that will be posted at the archive on Aug.2nd. The longer story, the sequel to last year’s story will be posted on August 7th. I’m over 6,000 words in and just over halfway done, according to my not-really-an-outline. I have planned a sex scene… or two.. and those honestly take a little time to come together. They are harder to write than one would imagine. I need some time to gather some uh, inspiration. I’m hoping to do a long sprint this weekend (in between directing the lawn guy and cleaning up the house) and finishing this weekend. It has to go through the Beta process before it gets posted.
Tonight, I’m really excited to be headed to a book signing by local author Tayari Jones. She’ll be talking about her recent release Silver Sparrow, which i’m almost finished reading. I wanted to finish it before her signing tonight and I hope I make it. I have just a few chapters to go and I might be sneaking in a page or two here at work. SHHHHHHHHHHH!
Since I have that signing, I will probably not be writing tonight but I shall be on it tomorrow! Everyone pray that my boss goes golfing or something.
I just stumbled onto this post this morning… well not really stumbled, since I follow Confident Writing via Google Reader, but you know what I mean. At first I was just going to mark all as read the way I’ve been doing for awhile because I don’t feel like reading writing posts right now, but the introductory quote caught my eye:
“It’s a lovely piece of writing”, he said, somewhat wistfully. “It’s beautiful”, he said, and handed back the poem. “But what’s the point of me writing when I’ll never be able to write something as good as that?”
I went on to read the 9 Reasons to not stop yourself from starting (which I have been muy mucho guilty of lately, and I don’t even speak spanish). I encourage you to check out the entire post, because it is rather encouraging on a very basic, simple, easy-for-this-writer-to-understand level:
1. Writing has a ripple effect – How many times have I opened a WIP and got to work on something because I read something that inspired something in me? In effect, writing makes others write. It happened to me and can happen to someone else.
2. Your writing can only improve through practice - I know for a fact, by reading things I wrote years ago, months ago, weeks ago, that this is true.
3. No-one else has your perspective, experience, or voice - This is something I struggle with. I really feel like I am not saying anything new or revealing. Maybe there are no new ideas just different ways to present them?
4. You never know the difference your words will make - I don’t talk about my fanfiction must here but I was voted an “Inspiring Writer” by the community where I post my stories. That actually means a lot to me. It also adds PRESSURE.
Hello, fellow writers. It has been a LONG day. I did a little shopping (read: I went to Target for Charmin and spent $37) and attended my first Writer’s Club meeting, which was very exciting because we had a guest speaker today: Ms. Bernice McFadden, author of Sugar, Glorious, Nowhere is a Place and 9 other novels. I read Sugar in 2009 and STILL tell everyone to read it when they ask me about great books. I posted my review of Sugar here.
Our meeting started with a 5 minute grammar lesson by English teacher Mary Grace Schaap on Passive Voice and when to use it. The lesson was really instrumental, because I can count on two hands how many times I’ve read advice to avoid it. However, Ms Schaap showed us how using Passive Voice adds a little style and mystery to your writing, no matter the genre. Most often, it is used when you want to hide certain details.
Verbs can either be active or passive. In active voice, the verb is said to do or be. It is direct. In passive voice, the object is acted upon. The effect is wordy and the sentence lacks spice but is most useful when the attention belongs on the person or thing being acted upon, and not the action itself or when the do-er is unimportant. In fact, the do-er can in many cases be left off of the end of the sentence, especially if you’re suing a ’by’ as in the policy was approved by the committee. It’s just superfluous words.
Crime novels and journalists use Passive Voice:
The missing child was found a mile from her home
The jewels were stolen in broad daylight
Mistakes were made
Genres like poetry use Passive Voice beautifully:
Soothed by the Sea
Rocked by waves
The key, said Ms Schaap, is to know WHY you’re using Passive Voice. Recognize the effect or style that you want to put into your piece and you’ll stand up to any proofreader or editor’s criticism. Great lesson, and she used sentence diagrams, which I used to LOVE in English classes. I was the nerd grinning in the fifth row. :)
After our 5 Minute Grammar primer, the President of the Club introduced Bernice McFadden. Ms. McFadden began her talk by taking us through the journey of her career. As a child, she was a voracious reader, digesting mostly picture books until she found some Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins novels that weren’t meant for such young eyes. It reminded me of when I was about 12 and found my mother’s stash of VC Andrews. I was forbidden to read them, but over the course of the summer, read the entire Flowers in The Attic series and have never been the same. After writing a pretty graphic story (of which she had no idea what she’d really written, since she’d just lifted sentences and phrases from the books she read), thus began her journey as a writer. Continue reading
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is my second book by Sarah Addison Allen and I really enjoyed it. I’m a reader of pretty heavy material, so every once in awhile, I like to clear my palate with some lighter fare and Ms Allen always delivers a fun, indulgent read laced with sweetness and a little bit of magic.
Willa Jackson, Colin and Paxton Osgood, and Sebastian Rogers all went to high school together and all but Paxton (who never left) returned years later, completely changed people. The story centers around a Gala, a formal party to celebrate the re-opening of the Blue Ridge Madam, led by Paxton and the Women’s Society. Just as the Madam is about to open,a skeleton is found, tying Willa, Colin and Paxton together via their ancestors and a well kept secret.
The Peach Keeper is more than a story about a magical man who smelled of peaches and once held an entire town under his spell, and who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared… and then reappeared as a skeleton just as Walls of Water’s premiere luxury hotel was to reopen. It is a story of regrets, of self reinvention, of resistance to change and letting go of fears, and most of all of being true to oneself.
There was a lot less magic in this book than in The Girl Who Chased the Moon– I really expected more and perhaps the story could have benefited from it, but I also felt the story was full– each character had a purpose for being in the book and each character lived up to his or her potential. I especially enjoyed the scandal between Tucker, Agatha (Paxton and Colin Osgood’s grandmother), and Georgie (Willa Jackson’s grandmother. I wanted there to be a bit more detail about covering up the secret and what it had taken to keep it quiet.
And I’ll say this, because romances in books, by definition are unrealistic, but the romantic connections, to me, seem to be a stretch. Too pat and perfect and… unrealistic. I guess I am hard to please, and these relationships needed to form in order to push the story along. I was happy to see some old friendships rekindle, and some begin for the first time. I’m still sort of appalled that people still live in the town where they went to high school.
I gave this book 4 of 5 stars, purely because I enjoyed it so much!
Now, I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, here. I’m not announcing that I am leaving my cush job as the best EA this side of the Mason Dixon or throwing off my secret identity Writer Cape and flitting off to become a high priced call girl opposite a handsome Corporate Executive. For one, I can’t wear those boots.
Erm, no. I recently read a FANTABULOUS blog post by Roni Loren entitled “Traditional or Self-Publishing: Defining Your Dream” , based on an article written by Phil Cooke entitled How Much Did It Take To Buy You Away From Your Dream?
It immediately made me think of the opener to Pretty Woman, in which a corner salesman shouts out, “Welcome to Hollywood! What’s your dream?” I wrote a short (fanfiction) story based on Pretty Woman, and read it just last night, so odd that it would come up, today.
Anywayz, Roni’s post talks about that line in Up in the Air, when George Clooney’s character is getting ready to fire this middle management guy (who used to be a Chef) and stops to ask him how much it took to buy him away from his dream. When did stability and security become more important than doing what made him happy? Roni applied this to her writing life by examining what her dream is, as an author, and which path was more likely to take her there. She writes:
Here’s what my dream consists of:
- The chance to share my stories with others and (hopefully) entertain them.
- The ability to at least make a similar salary writing books as I was making as a management recruiter (The job I had before I had my son.)
- Validation from professionals that my writing is good and marketable.
- To hold my book in my hands and see it on the shelves of bookstores.
- Okay, and having some fans and a big readership wouldn’t suck.
So when you analyze the main components of my dream, you can probably see why self-publishing an ebook wouldn’t have been the total fulfillment of my dream. I could have accomplished some of these, but not all of them. And some people may scoff at the validation piece, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could land an agent and a big publisher. Maybe it’s bad to look to others to measure if I’m “good enough” but that’s how I’m built when it comes to my writing.
She also writes that it’s important for each writer to discover their own dream and determine what it will take to achieve it. This makes me really stop to think about what my dream as a writer is.
I haven’t always been as SRS BZNS as a writer as I have been in the past year or so. I wrote in high school and liked being called talented. I wrote in college and found that papers came out pretty easily. I attended Creative Writing Conferences and won awards and even a scholarship for my writing. And then I graduated from college and subsquentely lost about half my IQ points. I honestly began reading again because I felt like I was getting dumber every year.
Through reading, I started to miss writing. I returned to writing with fanfiction because it was easy– the world was already built, and your readers are already going to know your characters. Change the setting and situations, add your original characters, mix at high speed, bake and serve. My fanfic stories have always hung on the very edge of fanfiction, though… which is why I’m trying to take the next step into original adult fiction.
But is my dream to just write stories and load them up on my archive and never pimp them and never have anyone ever read my work? Do I want to be published? Do I want an Agent and an Editor and a Publishing contract? What’s my dream? And how much would it take to buy me out of it?
Unlike a lot of writers my age, I’m single. And childless. And petless. I don’t even have a plant– seriously, I don’t even have any mold growing anywhere. It’s just me, so unless I win MegaMillions, it’s not like I can choose writing over the stability and structure of of my day job. That sort of answers my question for me. The exact amount of my annual income is what it costs me, every year, to buy me out of my dream. And if I’m being honest, seeing my book on a bookshelf at a bookstore would be a total dream come true. Having someone send me an email that says ‘you don’t know me but I read your book and could really identify with your charatcters’, or ‘your book really affected me’ or even ‘you’ve inspired me’ would be great.
For me, I don’t think it’s a matter of being published traditionally, or indie, or self. It’s a matter of doing it PERIOD. I’ve sort of always thought that I’d go for the big guns and if 99 peopl said no, I’d take the hint. For me, stability and security and my dream have to co-exist. At least for now, one feeds the other. If I lost my job, no way could I concentrate on writing. I’d be too busy worried about where my next meal or rent payment is coming from. If I quit writing, I fear I’d become a very tense, even more introspective person and never let anything out, ever again. That, my friends, would be UNGOOD.
Today’s post really, really got me thinking about this dream, though. I mentioned yesterday that my writing persona is like a secret identity and at some point I might have to unveil her, if I plan on actually achieving my dream. That’s really frightening to me… and you know what that tells me? It won’t be a matter of what I publish and what route I take. It’ll be the sheer terror of putting myself out there.
My fear is what it will take to buy me away from my dream.
Does anyone else feel this way? Or am I on Lonely Island? Anyone else absolutely scared out of their mind… that they might make it?
This evening (or last night, by the time anyone reads this) I attended a joint lecture given at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Their Ivy Hall Writer’s Series invites current published authors to come and speak to artists and writers attending the college. The lectures are free and open to the public.
Tonight, Ivy Hall was graced by Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help and Susan Rebecca White, author of a Soft Place to Land and Bound South. I truly enjoyed listening to both authors speak, share their stories, read an excerpt of their novels and impart advice.
Susan Rebecca White spoke first, on a topic that I could really relate to. She used to think the writing world was separate from the living world… that writing was pure, it was to close yourself off from life and the internet and the phone and everything and be alone in your thoughts. She came to realize, though, that life filters its way into writing, that writing is infused with daily life. It’s sitting on a bus or at a Cafe and inventing stories about who’s sitting across the table from you; it’s watching how people act and interact with or towards each other and noting how they seem tense or at ease, comfortable or stressed out and inserting those emotions and behaviors into your writing. She said that she came to discover that we write what we live, and writing things that mean something to us helps us to understand those things more deeply.
I had never heard of Ms White, but I’ve added her books — written about young, southern women– to my Goodreads “To Read” pile. I’ll be picking them up as soon as I can. Cannot wait to dig into them.
Kathryn Stockett, who had just the loveliest southern drawl, was the second speaker. Her main point– Create art that breaks the rules. When asked what inspired her, she said that thinking about everything she learned as a child and throughtout her life as an absolute truth was absolutely absurd. She said that she wrote to break the rules, to talk about what no one else is talking about, to color outside the lines. Her Best selling book, The Help, is such a testament to that, to women who are living nearly unaware of the world changing around them and yet cannot help but step outside the usual lines of normalcy and effect a change for themselves and their small town.
After each author gave their speech, there was a short question and answer session. I think the most compelling question and answer was about the writing process – if writing becomes easier after you’ve been published. Both emphatically shook their heads NO. “After you get your contract and everything and all you’re SUPPOSED to do is write, it’s hard, “ said Susan. “I think the struggle is motivating and inspiring.”
Kathryn agreed. “I think the idea of having to prove yourself is the most motivating thing, ever. And, you know, my next book was due in January, so maybe I’ll get some kind of inspiration from being beyond deadline and breaking the rules a little!”
I very much enjoyed the experience. I opted not to purchase all three books and get them signed, though. Mostly because I am cheap and would rather buy used copies. HA!