Ania Ahlborn's Blog, page 3

How to Be a Writer: Hemingway’s Advice to Aspiring Authors

ARTICLE BY MARIA POPOVA VIA BRAINPICKINGS

As a writer you should not judge. You should understand.

Ernest Hemingwayhas contributed a great deal tothe collected advice of great writers, from hisfamous admonition against the dangers of egoto his short and stellarNobel Prize acceptance speech. But some of his finest wisdom springs to life in this excerpt from his 1967 nonfiction pieceBy-Line, found in the altogether excellentHemingway on Writing(public library) — a compilation of the celebrated au...

Haunted Tunnels With Really Creepy Backstories

ARTICLE BY ALAN BOYLE VIA LISTVERSE

Old, dark places are prime candidates for ghostly tales. Tunnels add a touch of claustrophobia to the mix. Humans have been digging through things for a long time, so the world isn’t short of tunnels with more history than lighting. Whether people were crushed building them or run over by trains, many have lost their lives underground. Tunnels have taken their place in folklore, fascinating both ghost hunters and those of us with a general interest in the ma...

Stephen King on Simplicity of Style

ARTICLE VIA MARIA POPOVA VIA BRAINPICKINGS

I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.

“Employ a simple and straightforward style,”Mark Twaininstructed in the 18th of his18 famous literary admonitions. And what greater enemy of simplicity and straightforwardness than the adverb? Or so arguesStephen KinginOn Writing: A Memoir on the Craft(public library), one of9 essential books to help you write better.

Though he may have used a handful of well-placed...

Little-Known Mysterious Ghost Types

ARTICLE BY JOHNNY PETERS VIA LISTVERSE

Nowadays, ghosts and spirits are all the rage in popular culture. Every channel you flip on, there seems to be a plethora of ghost based shows. There are reality shows—“Ghost Hunters,” “Ghost Travelers,” “Celebrity Ghost Stories,” “Ghost Hunters Academy” and even dramas based on the subject, such as “Ghost Whisperer” and “Being Human,” among others. In these shows, you have the typical paranormal phenomena being showcased, like full body apparitions, orbs...

Because Facebook; a Slight Segue from the Norm

Once upon a time, building a platform on Facebook was pretty easy. You made a page, people liked the page, you posted to the page, and people saw your posts. It was pretty convenient, pretty handy, pretty unmeddled with. Aaaaaaand then it was ruined.

I’ve had a Facebook author page for years, and over those years I’ve collected quite a bit of “likes”. I was pretty proud of that, because while it may not be the most accurate yardstick to measure popularity by, it was nice to know that there was...

Do You Want To Be Your Own Publisher, Yes or No?

ARTICLE BY CHUCK WENDIG VIA TERRIBLEMINDS

I feel like the Publishing Wars went from cold to hot recently — culminating in the recent Author Earnings site championed by one Mister Hugh Howey, who deserves creditat the very leastfor shining a light on the various nooks and crannies of both sides of publishing (seriously, the resultant conversation growing out of this is many-headed and more robust than I’m used to — far lessus versus themand far morehere are my thoughts and actually they’re kind...

Poe’s Tales of the Macabre, Illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe

IMAGE BY BENJAMIN LACOMBE

ARTICLE BY MARIA PAPOVA VIA BRAIN PICKINGS

Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are, have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.

Certain types of literature readily invite gorgeous complementary artwork. Classicfairy tales, for instance, have attracted somemagnificentillustrationsover the centuries. But arguably the most haunting art for literary-literature is that accompanying the stories ofEdgar Allan Poe. Nearly...

Writing Tips from Joyce Carol Oates, + Micro-documentary

Write your heart out.
The first sentence can be written only after the last sentence has been written. FIRST DRAFTS ARE HELL. FINAL DRAFTS, PARADISE.
You are writing for your contemporaries — not for Posterity. If you are lucky, your contemporaries will become Posterity.
Keep in mind Oscar Wilde: “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”
When in doubt how to end a chapter, bring in a man with a gun. (This isRaymond Chandler’s advice, not mine. I would...

Serial-Killing Nurses, AKA Angels of Death

ARTICLE BY SIMON GRIFFIN VIA LISTVERSE

We’re all aware of how simple mistakes in hospitals can have disastrous consequences. But, as horrible as some of the stories can be, most of them do not involve malicious intent. And we would like to think that the people we’re entrusting our health to will always have our best interests at heart. But the frightening reality is that, on some rare occasions, this has not always been the case.

10 Lainz Angels Of Death

The Lainz Angels of Death were four nurs...

The Internet Hates You: Five Writing Habits to Crush

ARTICLE BY PHIL JOURDAN VIA LITREACTOR

“People are suckers for charlatans who provide positive advice (what to do), instead of negative advice (what not to do),” says professionally grumpy Nassim Taleb. My April column onhow to create good writing habitsseems to have been enough of a success for me to wonder whether I’m a charlatan. So, in the spirit of giving negative advice, here are five things I think you shouldn’t do when trying to get your writing done. I’m not your dad, but I hope at le...