I've been doing a lot of writing lately (thus my absence from the blogosphere) and it got me thinking about why we do this creative thing called "writing." What draws us back to our computer, our paper, our story? It can't be the pay-- most of my novels aren't published yet and thus haven't earned … Continue reading Why Do You Write?
Tag: Shakespeare
Two blogs have recently offered some excellent and very interesting viewpoints on where stories come from. Today, I want to examine other people’s writing as a source of inspiration, and Monday, I’ll post an analysis of the inspirations of Pride & Prejudice, in response to A Pilgrim in Narnia’s examination of the stories within that … Continue reading Reusing Story Material
Writers don’t necessarily read like other people. Many of us notice little things—plot devices, grammar errors, characterization flaws—that other readers don’t, and they bug us, because we’ve sensitized ourselves to what good writing reads like. We get labeled as snobs for it, sometimes, but I think it’s part of being a writer. (I explained more … Continue reading The Benefits of Reading Like A Writer
I was browsing my library book-sale shelves recently and noticed that many of the works offered for sale—at very discounted prices—were works of fan fiction, most notably Star Wars, Star Trek, and the historical fiction types. I thought it rather intriguing, since the books are donated; it suggested that other, more worthy volumes were retained, … Continue reading Fan Fiction: An Offering of Love or Laziness?
One of the blogs I follow recently did a Bookshelf Tag (in her case, it was a Movie Shelf Tag), and it got me thinking about the power of stories and books, in particular. I discovered that the books that inspire me aren’t usually the ones that introduced me to a genre, while the ones … Continue reading Inspiration, Introduction, and Influence: The Power of Books
You know the story is done when the book is finished. But the book never seems to end. And I wish you were still here. If I could speak to you, maybe I would know the ending. When good is enough. When the lights dim, do we still see starlight? Or has the abyss … Continue reading Lights Dim
A Review of the 2013 Romeo & Juliet Movie I’ve seen many renditions of Romeo & Juliet: on-stage and on-screen. I saw Zeffirelli’s film version in my college Shakespeare class, and I saw the beginning of the 1996 version, Romeo + Juliet (That was as far as I could get; it was way too modernized … Continue reading Much to Do With Hate, But More With Love
One of the pieces of writing advice I have heard frequently is to “Know your genre.” “Read deeply in your genre,” people say. “Know what has been written, and how your work differs from others.” When I talk to science fiction and fantasy fans, they are often amazed by how many sci-fi/fantasy books I haven’t … Continue reading Know your genre…or your classics? Or both?
Andrea Lundgren 