Monthly Archives: May 2011

Self Study Book Club For Novelists, Poets and Short Story Writers

|

Someone on a forum I frequent told me my tastes in reading were too narrowingm, and I should open my mind to new books and writers I was frankly either too afraid or envious to read.

for the purposes of this idea, I’ll assume you have or are searching for books on the craft of writing, this books club will focus on reading books in the genres or type of books you want to write or are writing now.

When choosing books to read, they should fall into the following catagories-

Books You Love Reading No Matter What
Often these are the books and writers who made you want to write in the first place.
Books You’re Afraid To Read (And write too!).
Books by writers you’ve envied too much to give a chance.
Look for tee the joy and/or lessons they can teach you.

To show you how this looks, I’ll share some of the books I’m going to read starting later today, burning the midnight oil a bit-

Books You Love Reading No Matter What
Often these are the books and writers who made you want to write in the first place.
Books You’re Afraid To Read (And write too!).
Books by writers you’ve envied too much to give a chance.

Look for tee the joy and/or lessons they can teach you.
To show you how this looks, I’ll share some of the books I’m going to read starting later today, burning the midnight oil a bit-

Books You Love Reading No Matter What
Anything by

Books You’re Afraid To Read (And write too!),
Anything By 

Books by writers you’ve envied too much to give a chance.

Look for tee the joy and/or lessons they can teach you.
To show you how this looks, I’ll share some of the books I’m going to read starting later today, burning the midnight oil a bit-

If you’re feeling brave enough, please share the books you want and need to read in the format and categories above in the comments.

As for me, once I’ve made some headway on my to be read list, I’ll start doing book reviews, and I’ll have a new regular feature on the blog that chronicles my Self-Study reading.

Until next time,
Be Inspired,
May The Fantastic Fauna Be With You

Your Earnest Yet Scatterbrained Literary Rat,
Taurean

When Writer’s Confrences are NOT an option Or How To Be Your Own Eest Teacher

|

I don’t know about you,

After a three or four year period of writing fiction, those early critiques were so awfully constructed that evertyone who read my early work had told me a varient of the two biggest issues in my stories. One of which is way better now than it once was, the second not so much. What are they?

1. Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation (Did I mention Grammar?)

2. Go to a writer’s conference

I probably hear this more than Show, don’t tell these days, but as much as I’d like to attend a conference like the big ones SCBWI held in New York and California, I just can’t afford them, and that doesn’t include, airfare, hotel expensies, food, and shopping! There’s more, but I won’t bore you further.

I’ve had to learn much of what I know now the old school “Hard Knocks” way, and trust me, I’ve come close to either quitting or letting my stubborn streak get out of control.

While we can’t always avoid certain frustrations with writing, nor can we force our books on agents and/or editors because we know just because the query letters are bad, the actual book isn’t,

Still, there are things we can do on our own that will make us better writers,

This Literary Rat’s hitting, or rather, I mean "Reading" The Books, This Time,With Joy!!

|

As many of my writer friends know, I’ve had a hard time reading books without either jealousy or feelings of inferiority cloud my judgement. Many warned me to start putting my self-pity in check, and they were right, but it just took a long time to get there, but I have and I’m ready to fight back!

I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on, and I don’t mean books on craft (Though I need all the help I can get with query letters!) but actual books. The novels, Poetry, and nonfiction books I was not able to enjoy because trying to improve my craft like I did, came at the price of not reading like I should, and used to before query letters broke my resolve more than once the last two years.

I know many writers do well thinking about books in this manner, many of my favorite writers go by their own version of the self-study method, but for me, it just makes the frustrations I already felt even worse. For me, books I read for me, and not for school, need to be fun and engage my interests.

I have to first read to enjoy it, and maybe after I can find some technique I can use to help my writing.

But first and foremost, I have to enjoy the book I’m reading, the books that made me decide to be a writer in the first place. I lost touch with that part of myself for too long, when I struggled so hard to fix my weaknesses, but I’ve got it back and I’ll make D*** sure I’ll never lose it again.

I’ll explain more on what I’m doing differently for the better later on today.

Until Then,
May the Fantastic Fauna Be With You

Taurean

I’m back! For Good This Time

|

Readers of T.A.A.,

I’m back, and will be updating reularly from now on, a promise I can and will keep, . I’ve had to sort out a lot of feelings, fears, and frustrations that held me back, in writing and in life, and while some things are moving slower than I’d like, I will get there, because I believe I can, as I know many of you are doing the same.

I will continue the F.U.N. Factor series articles later on this month, because for the next week or so, I’ll be covering topics that both explain why I’ve been MIA, how I figured out the problem, and what I’m doing now to address and improve the issues I now face.

Stayed Tuned,
May the Fantastic Fauna Be With You,

Your Overemotional Literary Rat,
Taurean