Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Write for Your Life; Poetry Rx; Around the World in 80 Books; and Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Uh, No)

 





I'm off to North Texas this weekend to attend the high school graduation party of our granddaughter, Bailey. 




I finished Mary Barton this week, and I must say that I was a bit disappointed. Author Elizabeth Gaskell focused on the lives of desperately impoverished people of Manchester in Mary Barton and that was the part of this book I thought was impressive for a book that was first published in 1848. But the story plays out a little like a fairy tale, with bad people coming to a bad end and good people living happy lives, and that was my disappointment. 

I was also a little disappointed with On Quality, a posthumously published collection of quotes from writer and philosopher Robert M. Pirsig. It didn't really add much to what he'd already published in his two books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila, but it was a nice reminder of the thoughts he'd already shared. And the illustrations, photos of Pirsig's tools, added a lot to the book.

I completed two 1001 Children's Books, Nobody's Family is Going to Change, a novel, and Gargling with Jelly, a humorous poetry collection. I read Anna Quindlan's wonderful Write for Your Life. And I wrapped up Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are, concluding that we probably are not.



Write for Your Life by Anna Quindlen (Nonfiction)
Nobody's Family is Going to Change by Louise Fitzhugh (1001 Children's Books)
Gargling with Jelly by Brian Patten (1001 Children's Books)




Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (Chapter-a-Day; Classics Club)






Another Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday by Clemency Burton Hill (Nonfiction)
The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (Narniathon)
Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch (Book-About-Books)
Poetry Rx: How 50 Inspiring Poems Can Heal and Bring Joy to Your Life (Happiness; Poetry)
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Chapter-a-Day)





Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:








My husband has been suffering from a cough for several days and he finally took a Covid test (negative) and went to the doctor. The doctor thinks his allergies have gone crazy from all the time we've been spending outdoors, and we're trying to stay indoors a little more until all the pollen subsides.






All the time we have spent outdoors has 
allowed us to see several new-to-us species of butterflies lately.


Good Thing #1
Orange Sulphur




Good Thing #2
Spicebush Swallowtail





Good Thing #3
Southern Dogface




I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 


Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

  • What was your week like?
  • Read any good books? Tell us about them.
  • What other bookish things did you do? 
  • What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Saturday, November 6, 2021

Can I Write a 50,000 Word Novel With No Ideas for the Characters or the Plot?

 





I felt like I was stuck at home for so long, and then in recent days, we have taken trips to North Texas, to Chicago, to Arkansas, and then to North Texas again. We loved seeing our family and we loved doing some traveling, but we are happy to be at home now.

I got my vaccine booster on Thursday. Hurray! I can see a return to my Christian Meditation group and the YMCA very soon.

I'm officially old! I celebrated a wonderful 65th birthday last Monday. 






The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles ⭐⭐⭐⭐




I'm reading nothing but nonfiction this month:

Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch
Extraordinary Insects: The Fabulous, Indispensible Creatures Who Run Our World by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
What's So Special About Dickens? by Michael Rosen 
If God is Love, Don't Be a Jerk: Finding a Path that Makes Us Better Humans by John Pavlovitz
The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher







SJ at Reading with a Llama notified me last week that I was the winner of her Halloween Giveaway! I will be receiving three books, a tote bag of my choice from Mabel & Nanny's Designs Etsy store, and a Witches Brew scented candle from Sandy Hollow Fragrances & More. Here's the tote bag I chose. Thank you so much!






NaNoWriMo has begun. I have no characters. I have no plot. I don't even have an idea for my book. Will that stop me? No, I will write anyway. Let's see what happens.





Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:







Good Thing #1:
I got my vaccine booster!

Good Thing #2
We are not traveling this week.

Good Thing #3:
I had a fabulous birthday.





I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

  • What was your week like?
  • Read any good books? Tell us about them.
  • What other bookish things did you do? 
  • What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Wondrous Words: Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

 

I'm getting ready for National Novel Writing Month in November, and to prepare myself, I've been reading If You Want to Write. First published in 1938, Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write is said by some to be the ur-text to modern inspirational writing texts. 

Ueland compares the creative process to listening to God inside yourself:

"Now this creative power I think is the Holy Ghost. My theology may not be very accurate, but that is how I think of it. I know that William Blake called this creative power the Imagination, and he said it was God. He, if anyone, ought to know, for he was one of the greatest poets and artists that ever lived. Now Blake thought that this creative power should be kept alive in all people for all of their lives. And so do I. Why? Because it is life itself. It is the Spirit. In fact it is the only important thing about us. The rest of us is legs and stomach, materialistic cravings and fears."

She learned a lot about the process by reading van Gogh's letters:

"But the moment I read van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate, and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by (recreating) it.

Ueland also learned about the creative process from her writing students:

"I learned from (my students) that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountaintop, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten--happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."

All this reading about the creative process arising from the divine and inspiration and enthusiasm led me to look up the etymology of the words "inspiration" and "enthusiasm."  


So there you go. Apparently, this idea of writing as led by a divine spirit is an old one.

Let's hope I can be filled with enthusiasm and inspiration this November.


Photos: Top photo is a photo I took of a writer in a cafe in New York City in 2011. Bottom photo is a photo I took of a writer in a cafe in Paris in 2020.



Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads. 

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Top Ten Tuesday Turns 10! Celebrating 463 Top Ten Lists on Readerbuzz





Looking back through my past posts, I learn that (apparently) I missed the first nine prompts for Top Ten. But after that, I rarely missed a week. 

To celebrate ten years of Top Ten Tuesday, I've spent hours and hours and hours looking through my old Top Ten Tuesday posts. I've created a list of the Top Ten Topics on Top Ten Tuesdays and I've sorted (most of) my past posts accordingly.


TOP TEN TOPICS ON TOP TEN TUESDAYS:
LISTS, LISTS, AND MORE LISTS:
463 LISTS ON READERBUZZ


Top Ten Seasonal/Annual Lists





and 85 more seasonal/yearly lists like this...



Top Ten Lists of Various Genres

Top Ten Favorite Love Stories in Books

Top Ten Favorite Books-about-Books












Top Ten Lists about Authors

Top Ten Favorite Authors

Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition



Top Ten Lists about Characters

Top Ten Villains and Criminals and Other Sorts of Bad Guys

Top Ten Characters I'd Name My Children After





Top Ten Lists of Words, First Lines, Titles, and Book Quotes



Top Ten Lists about Books You Might Have Overlooked

Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me



Top Ten Lists of Books That Could Be Difficult to Read






Top Ten Lists of Surprising Books

Top Ten Lists of Books-to-Movies



Top Ten Lists About Books in a Series







Top Ten Lists of Children's Books

The First Books I Had on My Bookshelf

Books from My Childhood I'd Love to Revisit

Top Ten Books I Wish I'd Read as a Kid






Top Ten Lists You Shouldn't Bother Reading Because My Answer Was Basically "None" 

Top Ten Books I Want To Reread





Top Ten Lists of Paris Books

Top Ten Books That Take Place in Paris

Most Hyped Books about Paris I Haven't Yet Read

Last Ten Books about Paris I Acquired: What to Read? What to Read?

French Books I've Enjoyed That You Might Have Missed

Top French-ish Things I Love

Ten Great Books Set in Paris

Ten French-ish Things Reading French-ish Books Have Led Me To Do

Books That Could Use a Little More...Paris

My Favorite Posts from the Past About France

Books with Eiffel Towers on the Cover: A Where's Waldo Adventure

Children's Books Set in Paris: Books I Haven't Read Yet

Des Livres Courts Sur Paris Qui Sont Babuleux (Short Books About Paris That Are Fabulous)

Books That Take Me Straight into the World of Paris

Favorite French Stories from Childhood

Wonderful French Book Characters

I Can't Resist Buying Books With French Things on the Cover

My Favorite Settings in Paris

Paris + Food: A Love Story



Top Ten Lists about Blogging

Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Book Blogger and a Bookish Person

Top Ten Blogs/Sites You Read That AREN'T about Books




Top Ten Lists of Book Settings





Top Ten Lists Where I Geek Out About Book-ish Things



Miscellaneous Top Ten Lists






Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.