Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Sites | Writers | Advertise | My Orble | Login
 
Les Writing blog, with tips, advice, and my own writing... And Nanowrimo obsession.

Short Fiction Short Non-Fiction - Fictional Worlds

Some Highlights

December 25th 2008 05:26
Today I'm going to highlight some of my favourite things to read. The first few are going to be actual books that I've loved and read more than once; the last few are going to be blog entries geared specifically towards writers. Reading for the cold winter months: curl up with a good book under your favourite blanket-don't we all just love it?

For those of you who have gotten Christmas money, some books to consider

~Anne Rice: Lasher-the thing with Anne Rice is some of her stuff is heavy and hard to get through; for horror fans, Lasher is definitely one of her best works.


~Timothy Carter: Epoch-this is a fun one, it's somewhat horror but it's also quite humorous (if your sense of humor is as warped as mine.)

~Sidney Sheldon: Tell Me Your Dreams-this is a dark book and a fairly heavy one; I'm not sure what to classify it as, only that it's definitely NOT YA.

~Barbara Erskine: Lady Of Hay-not for the light of heart, this is an absolutely amazing, heartbreaking story.

A few lighter reads:

~The Chronicles of Narnia (if you don't know of this series... you need a new education.)

~A Series Of Untortunate Events by Lemony Snicket: not the most pleasant of events, but his style keeps it from getting heavy, and the books are a lot of fun.

~Terry Pratchett: The Colour Of Magic-this is his first book in the Disc World series, and it's great fun.

~Piers Anthony's Incarnations series is also great fun.

Blog entries for writers:

These are a few of my favourite rants from Limyaael:

On animals and hunting-http://www.forresterl abs.com/limyaael/rant163686

On Art in culture-http://www.forresterl abs.com/limyaael/rant159024

On Religions-http://www.forreste rlabs.com/limyaael/rant131681


What Makes A Good Fantasy-http://www.forresterl abs.com/limyaael/rant128913

Ten Pieces Of Writing Advice-http://www.forresterla bs.com/limyaael/rant120163

That's all for today, folks. I'm burnt out and will likely be tomorrow after Christmas activities and wandering about on the relatives' new farm. I'll probably use that as a writing exercise and post something about it tomorrow, and then hopefully Friday I'll have the energy to do a critique.

I'm still looking for five volunteers for a first-page critique. Please email me at diannalgunn@gmail.com

ALSO: I've finished the first half of my workshop-planning. For the writing section, I'm going to have six (one a week) articles about the writing process, which will be posted on the blog as well as the workshop site, and I'm going to be doing ten pep talks. I'm looking for people to write pep talks. I need a total of six pep talks from other people.

I'm going to be emailing a published author who I was in contact with a while ago asking her if she would be willing to contribute either a pep talk or a planning exercise. I'm really hoping for that.

I'm also going to be turning the workshop into a PDF which will be made available on Lulu sometime after the workshop ends. Each revision will be a new version of the PDF. The PDF will contain the exercises as well as a few extra articles from my blog on the process of writing, editing, and submitting.

If you are willing to help-especially if you will let me put your pep talk/exercise in the PDF-please contact me at diannalgunn@gmail.com

Happy holidays, folks.

~Dianna
14
Vote
Shared on
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


What makes a writer?

December 12th 2008 06:31
I've gone over this before, but I was reading a thread on Forward Motion earlier and it's been a while, so I felt like writing about this topic.

What makes a writer in my mind is someone who loves to write. Someone who can't help themselves; they just need to do it like most people need to breath. Writing is a passion, writing is a love; when the going gets tough we still keep going. Writers love to do what they do, and are willing to work at it.

The first post in the thread that I was reading talked about plateaus, peaks. Milestones. The first plateau is where you want to write, but can't seem to finish a story; the first finished draft is a milestone. Editing, critiquing, taking critiques, all those things are milestones.

A writer is still a writer no matter where they are in this list of milestones, no matter what their current plateau is. 'Writers' are the ones who are willing to work to hone their craft, who are willing to learn new skills-not only willing to, but want to-and to experiment. (Says the girl who's never written outside her genre... um...)

Writers try to be the best that they can be and every major improvement is a milestone. With every finished story a writer improves; they learn more about the art of writing, learn more about themselves, their characters, their worlds. Writers learn more about themselves and their perceptions of the world around them through writing than most people ever really see.

I'm proud to be a writer-and I'm proud to try new things, to experiment. The workshop I'm working on preparing is a huge experiment right now, as I've never done anything of the sort; I'm working hard on the exercises (lies, I'm procrastinating... but it is hard work, when I'm working) and hoping that people will find them useful. Most of these haven't been tested, as I usually don't do extensive planning. The first time anyone will so much as look at these exercises other than me will be when the thing launches.

I'm still looking for writers of other genres to help with some non-genre-specific exercises; and I'm looking for people to do pep talks for the six week writing part. If you want to volunteer, please email me at diannalgunn@gmail.com.

And something else new that I'm trying is the 2YN, two year novel course over at Forward Motion. Check out the site here:

http://fmwriters.com/

I'm Litharukia on there (which is also my alias on WriYe and Nano and other such writing sites.) If you sign up, send me a message!

Thanks for reading.
75
Vote
Shared on
Comments (11)Comments (11) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


When Everything Is Just Too Much

October 4th 2008 23:28
So let me tell you something. School is stressing me out; I'm trying to force myself to go but it isn't working very well. Things at home aren't pleasant either. I'm stressed; so stressed that I've been sick on and off for two weeks now. Nanowrimo is on the horizon.

It's times like these when anybody-writer or otherwise-starts to wonder about all their obligations and if they're worth it. It's times like these when normally I would abandon the blog for weeks at a time; I'm trying not to. It's sort of working. It's times like these when we just want to throw in the towel.

But what do we do? We keep pushing, keep pushing ourselves to the limit every day to do our best no matter how bad we feel. We keep going, doing everything in our power to prove that we are capable people. That we can handle it.

The writer lives this life more than some. We live from paycheck to paycheck in worry; maybe the next one won't exist. Maybe there will be no work. We work hard in competitive markets where we might not make anything. We might just fall on our faces and have to try to pick ourselves up again. It might not even work.

But that is the risk we all take. We all know it's there. And no matter what, we have to keep working. And no matter what, I will keep writing. I will somehow manage 250, 000 words this November. And it will be something to be proud of.

I hope that those of us going through hard times right now-students of any age especially-can push themselves to stay on top of their goals, and to meet them, and to do all the great things, or at least most of the great things that they want to do.
43
Vote
Shared on
Comments (3)Comments (3) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Conventional English Classes

September 6th 2008 11:22
As I'm waiting for a response from my editor, I'm going to be here today and possibly tomorrow as well. And in the spirit of the start of school, my first post is going to be about the evils of grade nine English.

As some of you may remember, I disappeared for quite a while last year from Orble, as I was stressed out to an extreme level; well, I disappeared from school, too, and as a result I'm retaking all of my grade nine classes (with minor changes) this year. Which means I'm taking English


[ Click here to read more ]
32
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Why Do I Write?

September 1st 2008 05:57
I've written about this topic before. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately, so I decided to talk about why I write-not only this blog, but everything else that I write.

I write because without writing, I would be locked away with no outlet to express myself


[ Click here to read more ]
69
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (8)Comments (8) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Write What You Love...

July 18th 2008 05:35
Some people say 'write what you know'. But if I recall correctly, Stephen King and I have the same belief-that it is best to write what you love.

Because we can all write about what we learned in school, but most of us wouldn't want to. We know it-but we do not love it. And if we are forced to write something we do not love, it is by far a lesser product than what it would be if we loved it


[ Click here to read more ]
68
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Words On A Page

June 16th 2008 03:56
Writing: the art of putting COHERENT words on a page... and so much more.

Just because you can perform the act of writing words coherently doesn't make you a true writer. A true writer takes talent and hard work. To be a true writer you have to be determined to write, to want to write, to love writing


[ Click here to read more ]
59
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


A Writer's Work

June 13th 2008 23:14
What good is writing?

Let me tell you what writing is good for


[ Click here to read more ]
56
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Trying To Start Again

June 13th 2008 21:09
It's so hard... so hard. I've been through hell the last few months and I've lost all drive to live. All drive to write.

But I'm back. I'm going to try again. I HAVE to try again. If I am to survive the hardest trials of my life, if I am to survive these things, I must write. I have always written. It is my release. It has been with me since grade three, one of my hard years. It was there when I had to move, Daddy got sick, my parents split up. It was there all throughout the worst school ever


[ Click here to read more ]
46
Vote
Shared on
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


A Lack Of Drive

March 11th 2008 00:47
I haven't been writing much and to be honest a lot of my drive seems to have disappeared with a stressful weekend. I'm sick, lacking smokes, possibly being broken up with, among other things.

It sucks to be me. And when it sucks to be me... sometimes that's good for my writing, other times it's horrible. Right now it's horrible


[ Click here to read more ]
52
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Writing Is My Work

February 27th 2008 04:40
Writing is my work, my passion, my joy in life. Writing is everything to me; it is the one thing I have had for six years, the one thing that I rely on and trust in.

And there may be something called a 'day job' but I'm praying I'll never need one. I guess I didn't really see much hope until that publication. Now I'm out searching for more of the same and I'm ridiculously happy


[ Click here to read more ]
70
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Back

February 14th 2008 12:41
Have you ever noticed that the best writers go through some of the hardest times? I cannot begin to describe to you how much I have suffered in the last two months. I was fighting with my mother; I went into an open relationship before being dumped by a guy I'm completely head over heels with, I managed to fail all my first semester classes, and I suffered a hospital overnight after which I became severely stress sick for over a week.

All writers go through times like these. And I have written so much and been so inspired during this whole time that I'm almost grateful for the pain. In the end though, it all worked out well


[ Click here to read more ]
64
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Writing for yourself

January 25th 2008 01:04
There are those who write for money; those who write for others; but in the end, the best of us are those who write for passion, for themselves before all others.

Writing for yourself is one of the most rewarding activities in the world. When you write for yourself, there's a certain pleasure gained. You write because you love to write, and when you do that, the words can pour out


[ Click here to read more ]
71
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


A Notebook-The Poor Man's Laptop

January 24th 2008 03:36
As a writer, odds are you're going to want to write outside of your home, quite plausibly away from your desktop. And we're not all rich enough for a laptop.

This post is, in essence, the guide to stationary. Starting with notebooks


[ Click here to read more ]
97
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (10)Comments (10) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Next Page (15-28)



[ Fictional Worlds Home ] [ Create A New Post ]
Moderated by Dianna G
Copyright © 2006 2007 2008 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]