Tag: books
Foundational Dreams
” . . . if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary . . . and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
— Henry David Thoreau
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Find the Word, and Magic…!
[found on tameri.com]
“We believe the greater the vocabulary, the more concise the writing. Unfortunately, readers might not understand what you write. The definitions for some words listed are not the “common” meanings; we have chosen to focus on the words and meanings used to impress audiences.
Serious readers enjoy new words and writers love using the rare greats. Reading teaches vocabulary as we study context at all levels: elemental grammar, plot, setting, and more. Readers thrill at the discovery of new words; writers should thrill at using them wisely. There is more to words than winning at Scrabble™.”
Example of what you’ll find on their site:
“abrogate (v) – void, do away with, repeal
abscond (v) – to depart secretly
abstemious (adj) – moderate in consumption
brook (v) – to endure, tolerate
bucolic (adj) – rustic, pastoral, natural; simple
celerity (n) – speed, rapidity
censure (v) – to rebuke officially
chary (adj) – wary, cautious
diffuse (adj) – spread out, wide-ranging; using too many words
dilate (v) – expand
dilatory (adj) – delaying
enervate (v) – to weaken, to drain, to take vitality from
engender (v) – to create, to produce, to cause
feign (v) – to pretend, act, deceive
fervent (adj) – emotional; zealous
fester (v) – ulcerate; rankle. festering (v)
garner (v) – gather, store up
garrulity (n) – talkativeness
impervious (adj) – resistant, strong, incapable of being affected
impalpable (adj) – imperceptible, intangible
jejune (adj) – poor; unsatisfying
jetsam (n) – object tossed overboard to lighten a ship
kinematic (adj) – relating to motion
knavery (n) – untrustworthiness; lack of principles
libidinous (adj) – lustful
licentious (adj) – sexually immoral
mellifluous (adj) – sweet like/as honey
mendacious (adj) – dishonest. mendacity (n)
nebulous (adj) – vague, cloudy, murky; lacking form
neologism (n) – a new word or usage
neophyte (n) – convert; beginner, novice
obfuscate (v) – to make confusing; to mislead
objurgate (v) – to scold
paucity (n) – scarcity; lack
pedagogue (n) – narrow-minded teacher
quaff (v) – to drink; to quench thirst
qualm (n) – misgiving, reservation
refutation (n) – disproof of opponents arguments
reciprocal (adj) – mutual, shared, exchanged in kind
sanction (n/v) – permission, authorized; a penalty
sanguine (adj) – cheerful; hopeful
sapient (adj) – wise; shrewd
taciturn (adj) – silent; not fond of talking
tantamount (adj) – equivalent in effect or value
taut (adj) – tight, tense
ubiquitous (adj) – everywhere, widespread
ulterior (adj) – unstated; hidden
venerate (v) – to respect. veneration (n)
veracity (n) – truthfulness, honesty
wangle (v) – bring about by manipulation
welter (n/v) – turmoil; to roll, to tumble
xenophobe (n) – one afraid of strangers
xyloid (adj) – like wood
yammer (v) – to talk with a sad tone
zymotic (adj) – of fermentation; caused by disease”
[found on http://www.tameri.com/write/coolenglish.html]
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Urban Perfection
Be Thou Funny; Nay, Hilarious!
[found on thewritepractice.com; by Joe Bunting]
Joe Bunting’s Commandments to Writing Funny”
“1. Thou Shalt Not Worry About Offending
First and most important, if you’re overly concerned about what others will think, don’t try your hand at funny . . . . stay true to your voice and integrity.
2. Thou Shalt Pay Attention to the Mundane
Jerry Seinfield wasn’t funny because he could do impersonations, or was overly animated or creative. He was funny because he told the truth about the mundane….
3. Thou Shalt Take Clichés to Extremes
…when there was report after report about the Occupy Movement marching on streets all over the nation, I wrote Occupy Marches on Sesame Street—twentysomething angst taking on the puppets who lied to them first.
Taking cliches to the extreme is the bedrock to satire.
4. Thou Shalt Use Metaphors and Similes Like the Bubonic Plague
(First, see Commandments 1 and 3.) Metaphors and similes are to funny as Hugh Grant is to romantic comedy.”
To read the entire article by Joe Bunting, click here.
[found on http://thewritepractice.com/four-commandments-to-writing-funny/]
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What Doth Thou Hear?
Research How-To…and Why
[found on copyblogger.com; by RYAN HOLIDAY]
“I’m going to talk about research. No, research is not very fun, and it’s never glamorous, but it matters. A lot.
If you want to be able to make compelling case for something — whether it’s in a book, on a blog, or in a multi-million dollar VC pitch — you need stories that frame your arguments, rich anecdotes to compliment tangible examples, and impressive data so you can empirically crush counter arguments.
But good research doesn’t just magically appear. Stories, anecdotes and data have to be found before you can use them.
You have to hunt them down like a shark, chasing the scent of blood across the vast ocean of information. The bad news is that this is an unenviable task … but the good news is that it’s not impossible.
It’s not even that hard … once you learn what you’re doing — and I’m going to teach you those skills.
By the time I was 21, my research had been used by #1 New York Times Bestselling authors like Robert Greene, Tim Ferriss, and Tucker Max. Was I a slave to study? Did I have to become a library hermit to accomplish this? No, I did it all in my spare time–on the side, with just a few hours of work a week.
Here’s how I did it …
Step 1: Prepare long before gameday [sic]
…This is the mark you must aim for as a researcher, to not only have enough material — and to know where the rest of what you haven’t read will be located — on hand to do your work….
Step 2: Learn to search (Google) like a pro
…How do you find a needle in haystack? Get rid of the extra hay….
Step 3: Go down the rabbit hole (embrace serendipity)
…One of my rules as a reader is to read one book mentioned in or cited in every book that I read. It not only solves the problem of ‘what to read next’ but it sends you on a journey down the rabbit hole….
Step 4: When in doubt, turn to the classics
…The Classics are “classic” for a reason. They’ve survived the test of time….
Step 5: Keep a commonplace book
…a book of quotes, sentences, metaphors and miscellany that he could use at a moment’s notice….”
To read the entire article from RYAN HOLIDAY, click here.
[found on http://www.copyblogger.com/content-marketing-research/]
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Sinking Ships
“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
—Virginia Woolf
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Children’s Books—Authors Speak
[found on parents.com; by Jaclyn A. Zinn]
“If you ask a hundred different authors how they got published, you’ll get a hundred different stories,” says Pam Mu?oz Ryan, author of Mice and Beans, one of Child’s 50 Best Books of 2001. But aspiring writers — and fans — can learn and be inspired by the tales of those who’ve flourished in the field….
“The hardest thing to learn is how to communicate with your audience,” says Hoeye. “You can’t lose your voice. You must have a distinct sense of who you are and who you’re trying to talk to.” One way he honed his skills was by writing letters. “My first book, Time Stops for No Mouse, started as a series of letters to my wife who was traveling in Africa,” says Hoeye. “I didn’t know I was writing a book. It was just a way of entertaining her, but it kept growing and growing. To write a book straight through can be bewildering and intimidating.”
“Ideas come to me from everywhere-my own life, sometimes folktales,” says dePaola. “Strega Nonacame to me out of the blue, but I often get ideas from kids. The Quicksand Book is a good example of that. Children will come up to me and say, `Why don’t you write a story about….'”
“Rejection can be devastating,” says Janet Stevens, author of And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, a Child Best Book of 2001. “You can get your heart broken. The main thing to realize is that there are so many different editors with different tastes. You have to remove yourself from it emotionally and just keep trying. You don’t have to be the best author and win all the awards; you just have to appeal to kids — that’s what’s most important.”
To read more from the authors of children’s books on parents.com, click here.
[found on http://www.parents.com/fun/entertainment/books/secrets-of-successful-childrens-book-authors/]
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A Writer’s Time Management
[found on wrwdc.com; By Joan Whetzel]
“Many writers find time management at least a minor issue, while for others it may be a major issue, especially those who can never seem to find the time to write. The following tips may not completely get rid of all writing time management issues, but hopefully they will reduce the time management problems to a minimum.
1. Track Your Time. If you find you simply have no idea where the time went on a consistent basis, then it’s time to start tracking your time. Take a week or two to record how you spend your time from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed. Use a spiral notebook, split into columns: left hand column for the start and end time, middle column for a brief description of each activity, and the right hand column for the amount of time to complete that activity. Record the day and date at the top of each page. Then go through the journal to determine where you can shave time off activities (or remove them from your routine) in order to create more time for writing.
2. Set Goals. Goals give writers something to aim for. It could be a minimum word or paragraph count per day, a minimum word or page count per week, or a minimum article count per month. Meeting your goals will keep your writing progress moving forward.
3. Set Aside Time Just for Research. Having to keep stopping to research facts that you don’t know disrupts any writing schedule, cuts down on the available writing time, and distracts writers from their writing goals. Set aside a regular time to research the information you need to do your writing for the week. Then your writing time will be available for writing only….”
To read the complete article by Joan Whetzel, click here.
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