Tag: Books

March 31, 2016

Character Reactions Are the Laugh Tracks of Books

Any TV show that’s filmed live has little signs that tell the audience when to applaud. Almost all TV shows use laugh tracks so that audience members know when to laugh, and movies have soundtracks that tell the audience when they should feel happy or sad or scared. What do books have? Books have words. (duh) They have words that shape the...

Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 0

March 23, 2016

Books Can Change the World

How much of how you think was shaped by the books you’ve read? By the written word? Stories, articles, and pamphlets – how much of your history and your culture was directed by words set down years before you existed? When I started this article, I was thinking about texts like Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan or the works of Locke, Rousseau, and...

Categories General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 2

February 24, 2016

The Kind of Budgeting I Like to Encourage

When I’m budgeting, I have to avoid going to bookstores – I have no will power. Only then, I feel guilty about not supporting my local bookstore, and I end up going anyway. Fun fact: If you have filled bookshelves on all the exterior walls of your house, your heating bill will be lower.1    1. At least it should...

Categories Humor & Wordplay Comments: 0

February 10, 2016

Free Un-copyrighted Reading on Project Gutenberg

If you want access to stuff you can’t find in print, you need un-copyrighted works to use in print, or you just like to read, check out Project Gutenberg. It’s an online library of books, magazines, poems, articles, etc. that are no longer copyrighted. That includes most of the classics as well as works where the copyright wasn’t renewed (for...

Categories Research & Worldbuilding/Reviews & Recommended Reading/Writer Resources Comment: 1

January 7, 2016

It Can Be Hard To Be Sure If I’m Quoting Or Misquoting

Yesterday, I used a quote from Tolkien about escape and fairy tales. I came across it when double-checking another quote that is commonly accredited to Tolkien: “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?… If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if...

Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

December 17, 2015

The Sense of Inexorable Death: YA v. Adult Novels

If someone asked me to name the biggest difference between young adult and adult stories, I would say, “Death.” Yes, I know that there’s more to it, including the age of the character and the difficulty level of the writing; however, when it comes to the maturity level, death plays a big part in transitioning between children’s books, YA fiction,...

Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 3

September 3, 2015

Magic: The Goal and the Dream

Categories Inspiration/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0

August 12, 2015

A Good Bookstore Could Be a Joy Forever

It cannot be said enough – if you like books, support your local bookstores! In other words, buy stuff from them. Go to book signings. Go to their cafe. Don’t go in to find something and then buy it online (really, people – that’s rude). Yes, buying online is nice. That doesn’t mean you have to get all your books...

Categories General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 0