Author Archives: Danielle

A Blogger’s Journey: What I Learned Joining Blogging Groups on Facebook (Guest Post)

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By Brent Jackson

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I’ve been blogging on and off for nearly 10 years. I start a blog and I’m off to the races. I have high energy at the start. I have lots of ideas for posts. It all seems easy. I can look down the road and imagine a thriving community around my blog and all is good.

Well that’s how it always starts. Then reality sets in. The energy starts to drop after a few weeks. The ideas for new posts don’t flow as quickly. Before I know it … dead blog. I was getting to the point that I could picture an imaginary graveyard with little gravestones for each of my past blogs.

I finally broke the pattern! My current blog is a year old next month (May 2016). That’s far longer than any of my past blogs. My energy level is still high (with a little help from coffee). I actually have a backlog of ideas to write about. Scheduling travel and taking time for research is my biggest challenges this cycle. I guess that’s the benefit of finding a subject I’m passionate about. I’m confident this blog is going the distance. Continue reading →

Writing About Your Life

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(I’m not writing an one, but) I’m not quite sure I understand how people can write autobiographies about their life (probably redundant, but whatever).

Like how do you know what’s important? What people care about? What “scenes” from the days you were on Earth move along some sort of narrative that you’ve felt was important enough to share with everyone?

I’m having a hard time with my Camp novel this month. I mean, I wrote the first 149 words (milestone, woo!) and now I’m having a hard time writing the next batch of them. I did some very minor planning: a very basic list of important events that should probably be covered, but then I wonder if maybe some of them aren’t really integral to the storyline.  Continue reading →

Three Kinds of Writing Books Every Writer Should Read, Part 1 (Guest Post)

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Part 1: The Craft of Writing

What’s the most important rule of writing a novel? Get your butt in the chair and write. Got that? Good. But what’s next? What will take you from hack to Hemingway? Here’s an idea: read.

Read the kinds of things you want to write, of course. Then read things that aren’t like what you want to write. Read classics. Read poetry. (I’ve heard that Ray Bradbury read poetry every day. Reading his work, I believe it.)

But if you really want to write, then make sure you read books about how to write, and how to be a writer. And then read them again. While there’s no shortage of writing advice out there on the internet, do yourself—and your readers—a favor and dig a little deeper. Make these three kinds of writing books a part of your regular reading diet:

  • A book about the craft of writing.
  • A book about the art of writing.
  • A book about the life of writing.

Without a doubt, there are no shortage of books that fit the bill. In this series of three articles, I’ll introduce my go-to picks for each of these three necessary books. Today, a look at one on the craft of writing. In following posts I’ll take a look at the the art of writing and life of writing.

Continue reading →

4 Days Left! Time to Go to Camp!

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Are you signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo? There’s still time!

I’m super thrilled about my project this go around. I will NOT be completely winging it like I did in November (because Cover Up is a MESS), plus I’m getting in some good therapeutic writing.

72387_10154021204002641_3686270217819729306_n.jpgThankfully, since the day I somewhat angrily came up with this brilliant idea for a novel, things are sooo much calmer. My wine consumption has returned to normal (like I did NOT try to drink red wine out of a chocolate easter bunny like the Internet suggested – even though I had both a hollow chocolate bunny AND a bottle of red wine at home).

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We’re super focused on saving money now and trying to figure out what the next step is career-wise for me. Cue existential crisis, but I had one yesterday so we don’t need to do that again today. Continue reading →

Death of the Author (Guest Post)

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“What difference does it make who is speaking?”

This is the last sentence Michel Foucault writes in his 1969 essay What is an Author? [Admittedly, he wrote it in French, which makes the title: Qu’est – ce qu’un auteur? and the question: Qu’importe qui parle?. They sound so much cooler and philosophical, don’t you think?]. In this essay, he postulates that literary criticism should not focus on trying to understand the work through analysing the author’s biography in extensive detail (as many critics have done and still continue to do). He calls this “man-and-his-work” criticism. Rather, it should examine the work and its use of “structure, architecture, intrinsic form, and internal relationships”.

Of course, being a philosopher, Foucault then goes into even more detail: ok, let’s focus on the work (oeuvre). What exactly is a ‘work’? What qualifies as ‘work’? If we rummage through piles and piles of Einstein’s notes (if I’m not mistaken, he uses Nietzsche as an example) and find a shopping list scribbled in the corner of a page, do we include that as part of his work?

In contemporary Internet terms: would a blog post by an established writer about their breakfast – with pictures! – be considered part of their work? Continue reading →

Questions on My Mind Today

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  1. How terrible is it if I go get a chocolate milkshake from Sonic after my dentist appointment today? 
    1. I truly feel I need to reward myself for doing this. It’s been 9ish years (don’t judge me) and I have super terrible anxiety with dentists and people being so close to my face and I’m really trying to stay calm today but it’s getting harder as the hours tick by.
  2. Why is starting a new book/story so hard?
    1. I know exactly where I want it to start, but actually getting it down and not hating it is proving to be a pain. Especially considering that I have this fancy new notebook for I Should’ve Eloped and I just wanted the first chapter to be handwritten, but I’ve already had to rip a page out because I hated the first sentence so much. Maybe I should type it out first until I’m mostly happy, then I can transcribe it? Hm.
  3. Am I ever going to finish this book I started reading?
    1. It was a free ARC from a publisher and I’m pretty sure the review was due last month. It’s not even a bad book. But it’s also not my favorite genre of book. I took it out of my purse and I keep forgetting to put it back. Oh well, I’m sure I can get through a good chunk while I sit in the waiting room at the dentist this afternoon.
  4. Why can’t people arrange work projects ahead of time, instead of springing them on an unsuspecting person all of a sudden? And then taking forever to respond to emails about it?
    1. Grumble grumble work problems.
  5. Why does time go by so fast when you’re not looking forward to something, but it goes sooo slow when you are excited about something?
    1. Did I mention my dental anxiety? Gahhhh.

 

Happy Monday, friends. I hope yours goes better than mine. I’ll share some news about my Camp novel tomorrow when I’m not pushing my luck with an ulcer. 🙂

A Rose By Any Other Name (Guest Post)

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We’ve all been there. Standing in line, either scanning the menu boards to decide what we want or already with “the usual” in mind, waiting to inch up to the cash register and step into the spotlight. Only it doesn’t come when you place your order; it comes when the cashier asks, “Can I get your name?”

There are two things you have to hope for at this point. The first is that your answer won’t be drowned out or distorted by some noise in the background, like a blender roaring to life or a small child knocking something over with a crash. The second is that your parents gave you a name that isn’t about to get mangled.

Some people can walk into Starbucks and walk out again with their actual name spelled correctly in sharpie on the side of their cup. Whenever I’ve said my name is Carol, I’ve been among those people.

My name isn’t Carol. Continue reading →

Should You Find a Writing Partner?

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Separate from a beta reader, writing partners are there to keep each other honest. Note, I’m not speaking of a co-writer for a project. More like an accountability buddy.

A writing partner should:

  • make sure that their partner is on track with their current writing project
  • offer up advice as necessary
  • beta read/critique work as it gets submitted back and forth
  • chat often: either online or in person
  • be a shoulder to lean on when writing is hard, or when you get another rejection

This partnership should be 100% mutual. Both people should put forth the same amount of effort into helping one another. If one person cares more than the other, only one person benefits (and the partner who doesn’t benefit will be pretty upset).

There’s some pros and cons to consider before beginning the search for a critique partner:

PROS:

  1. With a good partner, you will get great feedback for your WIP.
  2. They will keep you honest, making sure that you’re actually writing something and not just saying you are (nudge, me*).
  3. They are there to support you through thick and thin, success and failure.
  4. Your partnership could very easily turn into a FRIENDship6321dd3a0cee74f410e80d2660859ece.jpg

Continue reading →

Top 5 Things I Dislike About Books (Guest Post)

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I’m so happy I got a chance to guest blog on blog and I’m sure I’ll be ready for guest posts on my blog too in April because I’m going to have my exams.

So today I decided to do a post about the things that I dislike in books. Of course these things are not that important and nor do they lessen my love for books in any way but still they are there.

Let’s start.

1) Big font for authors and a small one for the title of the book– Okay I’ve observed this on many books. Take for example any Stephen King novel. All of them has his name written so big. I get it that he wants to promote his books by his name and people will buy his books just by seeing his name on the cover but is there really a need to highlight the name so much? I think it gets on my nerves how the cover looks with name so big.

 

2) All the books in the same series have different heights– The second most disturbing thing is that the height of the books changes with every sequel. There is no similarity in the whole series and it makes it weird seeing the books on my shelf. I just wish every book to have somewhat same height. It sure seems to be monotonous but in the end it’s a series. Continue reading →

A Facebook Milestone (and maybe a giveaway?), Yay!

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First, have you liked my Facebook page? If not, you should do it now! 😉 I share my blog posts, pictures we can all relate to, and updates on my writing progress. I TRY to post once a day, but rarely ever more than that.

Check it out here!

But I reached a milestone! As small as it is, it’s super important for Facebook pages. I finally hit 30 likes! (actually 34 now, woo!) 30 likes on your Facebook page means that you can finally see insights, so how many people your post has reached, how many times people have engaged it, etc.

The only problem with this is now I’m super obsessed about my post reach. Like it just sits up in the right corner of my Facebook all day and I can’t help but want that number to get bigger!

SO. Here’s my offer to all.  Continue reading →