June 20, 2013

Posts Comments

The Contributions of Children’s Authors to Reading

July 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Cover of  

Cover of Jumanji

There have been many authors who have made a mark on children’s literature. Their writing has inspired thousands of children and instilled a love of reading in them.

E.B. White is a noted author who is well-known for works such as Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. His books are full of engaging characters, unique twists and perspectives that draw children to them today. He has made a real impression with Charlotte’s Web, a book filled with the truth of life, friendship and loss. His writing has helped many children to understand some of life’s most struggling trials.

J.K. Rowling is one of the most recent authors in the last two decades to redefine children’s books. Her Harry Potter series has drawn millions of fans around the world and inspired films and other items. One of her greatest contributions is getting reluctant young readers to pick up a book and learn to love reading. Her books have been translated into different languages and are full of unforgettable characters, villains and twists in plot.

Chris van Allsburg has inspired many with his engaging picture books including Jumangi and The Polar Express. His stories are imaginative, but when combined with his breathtaking illustrations they jump off of the page. Readers have enjoyed pouring over his stories and taking in the fantastic color and detail in his artwork. His illustrations bring children’s book art to a whole new level.

These authors and many others have positively inspired millions of children to pick up a book and find a new story.

Filed Under: Books, Reading, Writing Tagged With: , ,

The Glory and Angst of Writing for a Living

May 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Writer Renata Bomfim 

Image via Wikipedia

 

The writer’s life is a misunderstood one. If you write for a living, you’ve no doubt witnessed people’s blank expressions when you reply to the question: What do you do for a living? The starving artist, the blocked creative person or the best-selling author are all images that come to people’s minds, depending on which movies they’ve seen or how familiar they are with the writing profession.

The Angst of Writing

Perpetual angst is the topic most commonly addressed in movies made about writers. Unhappy editors and pressing deadlines cause writers to sulk, worry and sometimes hide from the world. The irritable writer with a cigarette in hand and crumpled paper in or near the trash can is a prevalent image. The unhappy writer who hasn’t showered in days and can’t think of how to start or end his book makes up the dramatic image of the typical writer’s existence. With such constant despair, what makes writers do what they do?

The Joy of Pursuing a Passion

In reality, writers write because they must. The flow of ideas and the urge to craft writing into the perfect sentence, paragraph, chapter and book causes the writer to endure the difficult and uninspired moments. Being paid to do what you love is pretty much everyone’s dream. The writer who can sit and work anywhere at any time enjoys a rare privilege.

The creative outlet coupled with continual autonomy makes a writer’s life one worth Living. Angst-filled moments do exist, but they are quickly forgotten the moment a brilliant idea appears or the work touches other people’s minds and hearts.

Filed Under: Reading, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Getting Noticed by a Publisher

March 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Getting Noticed by a Publisher

Every writer knows just how hard it is to get your manuscript looked at by one of the largest publishing firms. You have to have a great introduction letter and a story that really grabs the attention of an editor. Most editors at major publishing firms will give a book three pages before they decide if they want to explore that author or not. So how can you as a writer get your manuscript looked at by a major publisher? Here are some tips that could help you get past the editors tossing the manuscript or recycling it.

Great Letter of Introduction. You will want to make sure that your letter of introduction about yourself is as good as it can get. You want to focus on the main points and not spend time talking about how you would love to be published because most publishers don’t’ care. Just keep it short, sweet and to the point.

Synopsis of the Story. Publishers will require that you put a brief synopsis of the story. Try to make it compelling and captivating to readers. However, do not lie in the synopsis. Don’t talk about the great dragon if there are no dragons in the story. Just be honest but make it really intriguing.

Editing. One of the biggest turnoffs for an editor is to have a story that comes to them that is lacking in editing. This could be blatant spelling or grammar errors, typos and other items. You want to present the best product that you can. If you cannot employee an editor ask friends or family members to help you out.

These are just some of the considerations that you are going to want to make when you are looking for a publisher to notice you. Getting noticed by a publisher is an essential step in bringing your book to print.

Filed Under: Books, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Books Provide an Entire World of Information

December 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment
a random compartment on the bookshelf
Image by jaffry, grace and eliza via Flickr

If you’re looking for information on just about anything, you can find it in books. A lot of people turn to the Internet, but books can still provide you with the kind of experience that being online doesn’t offer. Getting lost in a good book is a great way to pass an afternoon or evening, whether you like to read fiction or you want to read about something real that happened in the past or could happen in the future. Getting your children started on reading early in life can give them a lifelong hobby, which is great, and it can also help them do better in school.

They’ll understand concepts better, enjoy learning about new things, and take the initiative to explore more of the world through the printed word. Some books are a lot more interesting than others, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pick up a book or two that you might not normally choose. You could end up with a real treasure that you hadn’t expected. Looking for a good book is a little like looking for apartments for rent in Seattle or another big city. There are a lot of them out there, but only some of them will be right for you.

As long as you’re willing to look around and really see all that books have to offer, you’re bound to find something that catches your eye. Don’t assume that you won’t find anything interesting, because there are so many options. If you pick up a book from your local library and don’t like it, return it and select another one. No one will force you to read it if you really don’t like it, and there are plenty of other books out there that are just waiting for you to explore them.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Books, Education, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Books evolve with time

December 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment

More than just pieces of paper, books provide a glimpse into another world. Over the years, books have progressed with technology to different platforms from scrolls to hand-held devices.
The book came from humble beginnings with stories written on stone, tree bark and even clay. It was Egypt who founded the alphabet nearly 5,000 years ago.
In ancient Egyptian times, papyrus became the standard material used for writing. This original paper was made from the papyrus plant, and then hammered into a thick, paper-like product. The scrolls were formed from papyrus sheets glued together. The first discovered evidence of reading material was of Neferirkare Kakai a king from the 5th Dynasty.
However, it was the Arabs who made progress in the book’s evolution process as they were the first to create paper books. The Arabs learned this process from the Chinese papermakers in the 8th century. Individuals would hand write on this material or use woodblock printing to produce reading products.
This was the standard until Johan’s Gutenberg invention of the movable type in 1439. The movable type revolutionized the printing industry by making books cheaper to print and widely available.
Presently, most books are printed by offset lithography. This is where a picture of the material is digitally or photographically transferred to a metal template.
While the paperback books are nowhere close to extinction, reading material is moving toward unique platforms allowing books to have a convenience like never before.
It was with the rise of the Internet, that digital books known as e-book (electronic books) have become popular. Although e-books are typically found on the Internet, these digital books can be found on CD-Roms as well. Portable digital books such as Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle have gained popularity recently as they provide a similar experience as reading a book.
Books are always in need and are growing with technology to meet today’s needs and demands.

Filed Under: Books, Education, Reading, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Techs of Technical Writing

November 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Traditional freelance writer work system.
Image via Wikipedia

Technical writing is a very attractive career if you have a background in science of any kind. If you are an engineer and have good writing skills, then you have a great career as a technical writer, or freelance. What a technical writer does is to write structure well researched papers on demand. Mostly the time given is less because the writer who needs to submit a technical paper does not realize until the last few minutes that he has to get help. Hence it is important that a technical writer learn to write effectively under extreme pressure and little time.

The first thing that you need to do is stop wasting time of the person who needs the work done. Get the basic information and get to work. He is probably more clueless than you were at the beginning of your career. If you dig in too much all you will get is anger and frustration from the writer’s side with lots of confusion on your side. Hence it is better that you stop wasting time. Second most important thing is to keep the work simple without any hard words. You would be just wasting your time. Before you start writing, you need to do a good bit of research and get comfortable with the subject. Without knowing you cannot be able to write anything meaningful. Some small tips that help are to read what you write out loud. Deadlines are the things that make writers come to work to you, hence love them and learn to meet them every time. The technical range in your paper needs to be broad with areas where you focus on more than other. You will find out what you are good at when you start writing. Learn to unlearn at the click of a button and be ready to absorb new knowledge fast, this is very important.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Writing the next Twilight

November 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Purge (short film)
Image via Wikipedia

Movie screenplay writers are nowadays working on converting novels into movies. A novel gets its reputation tripled if it succeeds into being picked up as a story line for a movie. The author gets instant worldwide recognition and the novel suddenly becomes popular. More novels are sold after a movie is made than when at first the novel was first published.But not all novels have what it takes to be made into movies. There are many things that a good screenplay writer looks for in a novel. It is a hard decision because to make a movie it takes many hundred times the money that it takes to get a novel published. Hence only after careful consideration will a novel be chosen. Make it obvious that the novel is movie material. Be passionate about your novel and it will be shown in the kind of novel you write. Make sure that your novel has what it takes to be converted into a movie of 2 or 3 hours. If it’s too long don’t worry, it can be made into a sequel. But if it is too short, the only chances that it has is to become a short movie. Like a good movie it needs to have a beginning, surprises, payoffs, twists, defeats, wars, etc. Make it as interesting as you can and different. Lately movies nominated at the Oscars have been adaptation of novels, hence you need to follow the rule, make stories that sell and let it self-execute by itself.
Another quite important part in the adaptation of a novel or a screenplay is to set the contract between the producer rights. To make it more attractive as a movie so that the novel is easily chosen for a movie is to write the screenplay. You will get more than what you would get if you just get the credits as an author.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Finding Bookstores with Both Current and Unique Items

November 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

If you like to read, or if you like to collect out-of-print publications, then you are probably always looking for information on bookstores that carry current items, unique items, or both. This can sometimes be frustrating, especially if you are not familiar with an area or are not exactly sure what a particular bookstore has to offer.

This is where such things as yellow page or directory listings of businesses may come in handy. These sources can be online or in hard copy form, and may go under names like Canada 411 or similar.

These sources can help you find the names and locations of bookstores. And, depending on the amount of information a particular business submitted to the source, you may also be able to find out if they carry only current items or only out-of-print or other unique items.

Some businesses may not keep unique items in the store, but still have a hard copy or online catalog that you can browse through. If you find something you like, they can then order or procure it for you.

Many businesses operate in this way so that they will not have to worry about the constant threat of break-ins or thefts because of the items being “on-site.” Doing this makes it safer for both the customer and the employees.

If you enjoy looking for older publications, you may be surprised to find an old Bible storybook or fairy tale collection that you can remember reading as a child. If you have children or grandchildren, you will enjoy getting them something that was special to you. They may not be too sure about it at first, but it is almost certain that as they continue to browse through the pages, they will come to enjoy it as much as you did.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Books, Education, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Being a Successful Freelancer

November 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 14: Artwork of th...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Freelancers are bosses of their own, they are not under any pressure to perform and provide a steady flow of articles every day. They can easily roam around the world and still keep earning money just as easily. Freelancers when submit an article are paid per article, this when calculated with the number of articles an on roll employee writes makes freelancing a better career option. A freelancer can be anywhere around the world or just sitting in front of the computer and write articles using the internet. All that a freelancer has to do is worry about his reputation, which once set will earn him more than authors with jobs. A freelancer can find work with other newspapers, internet blogs, advertisers, magazines and novels.

So how does one become a great freelancer? You need to focus on your writing style, find the style that fits you perfectly and stick to it. This will help you identify with your readers and the editors will come back to you. Another very important thing is don’t plagiarize, a little inspiration won’t hurt but plagiarism can ruin your career no matter how good you are. So be careful and do not plagiarize even by mistake. Check your article for plagiarism with the online tools available. When writing about a trend or a fact, remember to include sources of validation in your article. This will give weightage to what you have written and will be taken more easily by the editors. For collecting information be innovative and just don’t depend on Google for information. You can try sending a query to the websites that are similar to your topic, find books that are on your topic, sign up for receiving press releases from company PR agencies and find non-profit associations if any that are remotely connected to your article.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Editors remorse

November 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Writer L. Frank Baum, writing with pen.
Image via Wikipedia

Editors have a huge task at hand of improving upon what an author has written without changing the meaning. It is believed that editors are the final step before the publication of the authors work be it a novel, or an article or any little piece of literature. It is also said that editors clean up the mess left after the author is finished and they are the ones who direct them what to do next. That’s the case most often than not. Manuscripts from authors come with hundreds of typos and small alterations of words which will add more meaning to what the author wants to say. It is just the enhancement of the authors written text. No matter how good the plot and the characters of a novel are, with multiple typos and without depth, it is going to push every one away from it.
The first thing that an editor needs to understand from the manuscript is the purpose of it. Sometimes the author adds a few elements in the story and forgets about it, these are spotted by the editor and the story is streamlined further. Another important aspect of being an editor is organizing the thought of the author. The authors are treasure chests filled with ideas, when in flow, they spit out whatever comes to their mind in any possible manner. This is made into presentable form by the author. The story needs to be broken into smaller and easily understandable parts. The editor looks for roughed up or jumbled ideas that may be mixed along with the main story, these just divert the attention of the reader to useless stuff hence is carefully removed without altering the main story. And in the end the simplest and the most important thing, the correction of typos needs to be carefully checked for.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
«Older Posts