Tara Maya's Blog, page 52

Knowingness vs Knowledge

A great post by John Barnes on why he hates snark. Snark, as he means it, is not all sarcasm or wittiness...so not this:







 ...rather, what he objects to is a certain kind of "knowingness," like teenage dismissiveness in people who no longer have the excuse of teenagerhood:

"Knowingness, of course, is not knowledge—indeed, is the rebuttal of knowledge. Knowledge was what squares had, or thought they had, and they thought that it was the secret of life. Knowingness is a celebration of...

Keep the Best For Last

KEEP THE BEST FOR LAST: BACKLOADING
TECHNIQUE




by Rayne Hall






Angrypotato's Centaur Girl by Etoli







Here is a nifty technique to give your
writing style more impact: Structure your sentences so the most powerful word
comes at the end. The last word touches the reader's psyche more than any other,
so make it count.




Short, evocative nouns, adjectives and
verbs are best. Here's a list for your inspiration: death, dead, kiss, lust,
treachery, blood, fear, die, kill, deep, cold,...

How To Write 10,000 Words

Trying to Find The Right Words by Lardacil



When you hear that some writers can hit 10,000 words a day, not just once or twice, but regularly, there are two responses you could have.



1. Hate them.



Throwing a pity party for yourself that you just weren't born with as much talent, luck, time or black magic as they were also goes here. Excuses, envy, disbelief.



None of these responses will help you.



What response will help you?



2. Learn from them.



So I've gathered the best How To Write...

Restarting a Stalled (Writing) Engine

If it really existed, writer's block would be the inability to write. If we look at this idea for a moment,
we begin to notice that it doesn't make much sense. Is a person with writer's block physically unable to
put words on a page? If that’s really the case, it's not called "writer's block," but rather "paralysis" or
"death" or "extreme drunkenness."

Luc Reid's free book The Writing Engine is a great way to rev up stalled motivation to write. It's well, researched, it's short and easy to r...

Welcome Readers from India!

I've been eagerly waiting for Amazon India, and it's finally available!



Yay! Now my friends in India can buy kindles and (most important of all) my books.   :D



What does this mean for indie writers?



Well, first off, it's terrific news for indie writers in India, since they can now access the US market directly. It's obviously also great news for US writers, who can access the ebook market in India. This is great news, but there are still some flags. I wouldn't call them red flags. Ora...

2 Things That Always Make Kids Giggle

What you really want to know is when Wing will be out. The answer is... Soon. Very soon.




In the meantime, I have to confess something. I have three kids, the oldest of whom just turned six. They are very good at wriggling stories out of me. Sometimes illustrated stories. What can I say? They're my kids and I spend a lot of time with them.




My kids are semi-home schooled. What that means is that I send them to a public school as a form of babysitting, so I have time to work. Howeve...