Tag: Writing

Shakespeare Wrote Murder Mysteries

Guest post
by T.D. Griggs

Perhaps it’s worse in Oxford, like the weather.

Oxford, England, that is: a city stiff with history, bristling with dreaming spires, and teeming with writers. You can hear the scratching of their metaphorical quills even over the patter of the rain (and in Oxford, that’s saying something).

I’m talking about literary elitism. That’s what’s worse in Oxford.

Well, it shouldn’t surprise me too much. I have a background in history, and I ought to know that writing has always been an occupation for the privileged. In the Middle Ages literacy was virtually a form of shamanism, and could only be acquired by those adepts who had the money or the time – that meant churchmen and the nobility. Everyone else was too busy scraping a living and staying warm. The ability to write conferred and preserved power among those who mastered it. Continue reading “Shakespeare Wrote Murder Mysteries”

Name Droppers

I was talking the other day with E.L. James and Hugh Howey about what a bunch of name-droppers we writers are.

Okay, maybe that part didn’t happen, and I don’t mean name-dropper in the conventional sense. I mean that as writers, we have actually dropped certain names from literature.

When we choose our characters’ names, we use the opportunity to enhance the reader’s mental image of the character. Certain names just don’t seem to do that as well, so we drop them from the lexicon. They may not be totally gone, but to the extent they are used at all, they are given to minor characters. Continue reading “Name Droppers”

Pulling the Plug

“This one so completely sucked toads, I was ashamed even to be seen burning it.” – Jane Austen, speaking of the manuscript for her never-published book, Pride and Sensibility. (as far as you know.)

We all come to that pass, where nothing works to save an aspiring book. We hate to let them go. We try everything we can think of—change the plot lines, switch narrative perspectives, add sparkly vampire characters. Sadly, it just doesn’t measure up. You’ve poured your heart and soul and many hours of mouse-breaking labor into it, but it eventually becomes clear this one just won’t make it.

We hate when it happens. We blame ourselves. We tell ourselves a better writer could have saved it. Forgive yourself. Say a few words over it and move on.

Laurie Boris wrote the best eulogy for a manuscript I’ve ever seen. Click on over and pay your respects to the dearly departed. Then come back over here and take our poll.

Have you ever found yourself giving up on a manuscript?

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Common Core State Standards Initiative: Should We Care?

Source: Morguefile.com

Common Core. Such a simple term. Should we care about it?

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts & Literacy is a culmination of an extended broad-based movement to create a level of standard in schools across the United States. This new standard, now adopted by 46 states across the country, is an effort to help ensure that all students are career and college ready in literacy no later than the end of high school. Continue reading “Common Core State Standards Initiative: Should We Care?”