Book List: "On Writing"

I finished this book several weeks ago and have already turned it back into the library, but I never wrote a post about it, so here it goes!

I've never read any Stephen King novel, and after reading this helpful manual for writers, I'm not sure if I would even his enjoy his works of fiction. The book, however, was brilliant and wonderful. It has helped to confirm many of the theories and ideas I've had about writing for a while now!

Book List: "Across Five Aprils"

After struggling to finish this book over the past few weeks, I finally finished reading Across Five Aprils. I can see why it is considered a literary classic! It was a really good piece of writing-- descriptive, emotional, and factual. My only criticism is that it focused perhaps a little too much on the war. I wasn't interested as much in the parts that went into detail about the politics and the ongoing narrative about the movements of the various armies, but for other readers I'm sure it was interesting information.

Irene Hunt told this historical story in a very neat way. She intertwined fact and fiction in a satisfying blend of emotions and family, and she was able to tell the story of the Civil War from many different perspectives. By focusing on one family, you can plainly see how the war affected the home life of everyone in the country. Bill, the older brother that runs away to fight for the South, brings some unmerited ridicule and mob activity to their family farm. John, a brother, son, and father if the perfect example of the survivor-- the one that comes home to his former life scarred by the loss of his children's growing-up years. Shadrach and Jenny make a beautiful romance-- the boy goes off to war, leaving his heart at home with the young lovesick girl. And finally, the death of Tom, representing all those that never came home.

Conquering the Blank Page

This is based off of my 2013-Challenge post from Tuesday, but I liked it enough to post it here as well... Enjoy!

This 2013-Challenge is an actual challenge! I'm really nervous about this project, still, even though we are almost halfway through the third week. You'd think I would have calmed down and settled into a groove by now, wouldn't you? Not a chance! I'm still anxious about having such a heavy commitment. I'm still jittery about meeting the blank page every morning, and fearful of going to bed with a blank page.

But today I realized that when all the structure and rules and demands are striped away, the point of this project is to create stuff constantly. The point is to form new artist habits. The point is to face this blank page every single (week)day, and fill it with 'me' through writing, learning, thinking, drawing, and just creating. The 300-word rule is there to force me out of laziness, and even today at the late hour I'm finishing this, I'm not going to break the 300-word rule! I can't be complacent in forming habits, or I won't get the results I'm going for. But this is me, sitting down at the tail-end of the day, conquering the blank page. And I'm not doing it for you, a reader. And I'm not doing it to become popular. And I'm not doing it because I want to be published or anything like that. I'm doing this to prove to this blank page that there is absolutely no reason to leave a page blank.

The 2013 Challenge Project

I was considering keeping this a secret-- just for me, myself, and I-- but I've started a New Year's Resolution project and I wanted to share it. I want the accountability of my family and friends asking about it, I want an audience that depends on me to continue it, but I don't want people to read the crap that is bound to come out of this project. But I've decided to share.

The project is to write something every weekday for the entirety of 2013. Instead of posting on the Wrandom Writer blog and clogging up my good posts with a lot of every-day yuck, I've decided to start a new feed that is dedicated to the challenge. I will still be posting things on Wrandom Writer just as much as I always have-- I try to post between 2 and 4 posts a month, when possible. If I write something extraordinarily good for my Challenge feed, I will post it here as well.

Hopefully, this challenge will make me write more, and it will help me come up with better ideas, better posts, and better art. As they say, practice makes perfect, and that's the point of this Challenge blog. To practice. To make mistakes. To make terrible first drafts. So enjoy!

2013-Challenge.com