“In three years of teaching, this is, by far, my favorite student error.”
The Goodreads books added stats for Fifty Shades of Grey.
I’ve been doing this job for a while now, and I have never, ever...
Okay, so. You guys.
I bought this at Word on Sunday and I read it on Monday and oh my God you guys it is a perfect book.
If you have ever been in...
Book Shark
How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse
Alexander McCall Smith gives advice to aspiring writers as part of our Writers on Writing series.
“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.”
― Emma Thompson
“At some point in your life, this statement will be true: Tomorrow you will lose everything forever.”
― Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
We asked Mark Z. Danielewski - author of House of Leaves, Only Revolutions, and the upcoming The Fifty Year Sword and The Familiar - to share a tip for aspiring writers as part of our Writers on Writing series. Watch the video to see what he had to say.
“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
- Franz Kafka
Fun writing tool of the day: Grow a Face
Laughing Squid says, “Grow a Face is a random face generator that offers a lineup of faces to choose from—when the user selects a face, the generator creates a new lineup of faces based on the selection (and so on). Grow a Face was developed by German writer and programmer Philipp Lenssen.”
We say this is a fun tool for writers who are feeling stumped on what their characters should look like - the visual equivalent of a random name generator. Or, what about this - generate a set of faces then write a story for them? Check it out here.
“Don’t wish me happiness
I don’t expect to be happy all the time…
It’s gotten beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
I will need them all.”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
“Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who stop to consider the antithesis; that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable.”