Ann's Blog

Advice to Writers: Interviews (Image Information: Rick Riordan,  Wikipedia Rick is one of my favorite authors of all time) For this lab, I chose to read three interviews with different writers off of the advice to writers website. I love getting advice from other writers. I find it very encouraging.  The first interview I read was of Mitchel Zuckoff  a professor of journalism and author of two books. My favorite piece of advice from him was "Write Scared.  That is, push yourself beyond what you think is possible or safe, to the outer limits of your research and your ability, to the point where it feels exciting and a little scary. When it works, it’s exhilarating for you and for the reader. " Next I read the interview of Lori Gottlieb , a journalist for The Atlantic. She is also a pyschotherapist. My favorite part of this interview is when she talks about writer's block. " I was like the gambler who kisses her spouse goodbye in the morning and then goes to t...

(Image Information: TARDIS, Pixabay )  For this story lab, I read chapter 2 of  EmpoWord . The chapter begins with a Doctor Who quote, which is why I thought it appropriate to share this picture of the TARDIS. The quote, which is actually from Steven Moffat, writer of the show, goes "We're all stories in the end." You may have heard this quote before as it is pretty popular, and for good reason. As EmpoWord discusses, there are multiple meanings we can derive from this quote. The chapter then moves on to talking about narration. According to the chapter, an interesting, well-told story in writing needs description and deliberate choices.  This story lab was very educational and I think having read the chapter will make me a better writer. It talks about everything from plot shapes and form to writing from different points of view. One of my favorite things that I read about was characterization and how to use specific details to enhance your characters. Specifical...

(Image Information: Writer's Desk, Public Domain ) For this assignment, I explored the Writer's Write website. The first interesting thing I stumbled across was Book Reviews , under Everything Literary. I love book reviews, so this was very exciting for me. I read a few different reviews just for fun. The ones I chose were Record of a Spaceborn Few , The Paper Lovers , and Death Cup . I picked these three to read about because the titles grabbed my interest. They all sound good and are now on my to-read list. Record of a Spaceborn Few sounds like a deep, futuristic sci-fi book. It is the third in the Wayfarers series. The Paper Lovers sounds like a wild story; it is about a man who is caught having an affair and becomes a religious fanatic, as told by his wife. Death Cup is a spooky detective fiction starring a woman named Storm. The next thing I looked at on the website was the Writing Prompts section, also under Everything Literary. The first writing prompt I read was ...