The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.
— Washington Irving

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
— Maya Angelou

by liannith

I could never do hands.
I can transfigure my chisel
Into a typewriter and speak a personal history
And sculpt the deep rivets of emotions
Round the eyes of dictators and devils,
Divas and demigods,
Fashioning life
From cold bronze and stone.
Or recreate the folds of gowns
That envelope sleeping nymphs,
While patterns, Klimt-like
Wreath the delicate tendrils of their hair.
But if I could emulate the warmth of a handshake,
The articulation of a hand raised and lowered
In debate
Like the ebb and flow of tides;
Or capture the vitriol of an obscene gesture…
I cannot conceive the corrugation of weather-worn knuckles
Bleached and tanned by an unforgiving sun.
Or the elegant ebony hand
Whose pale palms serve a contrast of colour
More pleasing than any canvas.
I only wish I could do hands.

No bad man can be a good poet. — Boris Pasternak

When people tell me I’ve kept them up all night, I feel like I’ve succeeded. — Sidney Sheldon

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

[Poets are] men stepping on clouds, snaring a world of beauty from the trees and sky, half wild, half human.

— Dylan Thomas

Have you ever been assigned to critique something that was written by a monkey dancing on a keyboard? Do you occasionally find yourself wondering if you have spent more time critiquing a piece than the author did writing it?

When I am assigned to critique something that makes my brain hurt I pick one area like character development, setting, structure, or voice to focus on. I know there is no way I am going to fix everything that is wrong with the dancing monkey in one critique, but I can help him swing to a higher branch by helping him understand how to improve one area.

How do you deal with a dancing monkey?

Jacob

In marketing I was taught that successful products are generally created by going in the opposite direction of the competition.

Given the current vampire and Twilight hype I wonder if an author can write a unique vampire story right now. Personally I think an author could pull it off but it would be hard because of this environment. It pains me to say this because I started my love affair with vampires when I did a report on Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as the inspiration for Count Dracula, in sixth grade. But right now vampires have been done to death. Let the dead sleep for a while so they can emerge into freshness in a few years.

Getting published is hard. Give yourself a better chance by going after a fresh angle. Instead of the blood sucking spawn of Satan write about a holy life giving priest. If you absolutely have to write about vampires do it metaphorically by writing about attorneys.

You will never get anywhere by copying the pages of someone else. Instead write about what make you unique.

Jacob

We have been carefully monitoring the Review Fuse community. We have determined that we can now offer premium members three critiques for every two they give.

This announcement does not affect free members. They will still receive 3 critiques for every 4 given.

This change has been implemented for all of our current premium members as well as new premium members. If you sign up for a premium account under this offer you will receive three critiques for every two you give for the duration of your premium membership.

Create a free trial account to learn more about the benefits of premium membership or login if you are a current member to learn about additional benefits of premium membership.

Jacob

I have come across a few different categories of writers.  The first set writes purely for the joy.  For them the joy can come from the creation of something new, the excitement in others who read what they have written, or even from the anticipation that comes with hoping to be the next best selling author.  These authors can spend 10 years on a single book and love every minute of it.

Another set seems to be all about business, constantly looking for ways to bring in new money and constantly finding themselves working on projects that are not necessarily their dream.  Writing articles for magazines, editing for other authors, and doing everything to get the money in the here and now.  Often, this group seems to move between genres depending on where the money is at the time.

The last group seems to be concentrating only on getting the big payout.   They will generally pick a very main stream genre and topic.  Like those writing to make the money now, they write more for the reader than for their own enjoyment in writing.  When it pays off, it pays off big but is also much harder to succeed at.

What type of writer are you, what type would you like to be?  Did I miss any types that you have met?  What type of writer do you think we have the most of here at Reviewfuse (if you haven’t met our writers yet, join our forum and/or submit your own work to get reviewed)

steve

I started a forum thread about ebooks last night, but I want to discuss my experience with ebooks in more detail.

When I was first offered an ebook reader I said no. I actually had the offer extended to me three times before I decided to try one.

The first ebook reader I tried was from Sony. It was unintuitive, had very limited battery life, the digital rights management system on the reader made me feel like I was committing a crime every time I tried to read something, and the screen was hard on my eyes. Strike 1.

After the Sony I wrote off ebook readers again. At least until I was offered a Toshiba reader three times. I finally took it because I wanted to prove how bad it was. It was bad. Strike 2.

Then I was offered a Kindle. One of my colleagues who hated the Sony and Toshiba readers told me the Kindle was different. So I decided to look at it to see if ebook reader would strike out. I was surprised to discover that the Kindle was actually decent. It was not perfect. The button placement could have been improved by a monkey with an etch-a-sketch. However, the screen was easy on my eyes, materials where transferable between Kindles, the wireless network made it easy to find and buy books, and the battery life was fairly impressive.

The next generation Kindle is here, from what I have seen it solves a lot of the problems the original had for readers. But does it help authors? Will ebooks and epublishing make life better or worse for authors? If anyone can publish how much harder will it be for readers to find the stuff worth reading? Are ebooks a step forward or backward?

Jacob