Month: October 2014

On Writing: Resources for Writers

100 Word Story

Janet Reid needs no introduction to writers and would be writers, does she?  She’s a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management and her blog must be one of the most widely read of them all.  I happened to see a contest that’s playing out there a short while ago. The task is to tell a story in 100 words or less, using five words selected by her.

The five words are: ” oil”, “boom”, “mother”, “ice” and “shower.”

This was my first shot at an exercise of this kind. I decided to give it a go.

As required, we pasted our “stories” as comments under the  blog post in question. You can see my effort along with those by many others.

It doesn’t matter whether you win something or not, it’s an interesting experience and I look forward to taking part in more such contests if I come across them.

As a writer, it underscores to me the maxim that, ‘Every Word Counts.”

Try it for yourself. It is fun, isn’t it?

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On Writing: Resources for Writers

Opening Sentences in Fiction

In this blog, I try to share  posts and articles I found interesting. They relate to the writing process, the lives of writers and the business of books. They say that the opening sentence is one of the most important parts of a book. Legend has it that famous authors have spent months sharpening that one sentence to perfection. The Guardian has this wonderful collection titled, ” The 10 best first lines in fiction.” You might or might not agree that these are the 10 best, but they do make  good reading. Mark the variety of these opening lines which underlies the point that there is no one way to score an ace. Continue reading “Opening Sentences in Fiction” →

On Writing: Resources for Writers

#Writing: A Hashtag to Follow on Twitter

Most authors are on Twitter these days. You have to be, to tell the world about your writing and learn from others how they improve their writing skills. I follow the hashtag #writing very closely. I must confess that I have gained a lot from simply reading the links provided after the tweets with this hashtag. I have also developed my social network in the process. More than anything else, I love the learning bit as we come across interesting information and perspectives linked to this hashtag. Continue reading “#Writing: A Hashtag to Follow on Twitter” →

On Writing: Resources for Writers

On Literary Magazines

A confession: I haven’t really paid much attention to literary magazines. Till now. To be honest, I never even knew so many of them existed, jostling for attention in a crowded market place. It was this article by Joe Bunting in The Write Practice that captured my interest. In an interview, Linda Swanson-Davis, co-founder of Glimmer Train speaks of “How To Get Published In Literary Magazines.”  Continue reading “On Literary Magazines” →