Michelle Witte's Blog, page 5
April 4, 2012
The Only Rule Every Writer Must Know
The only rule every writer must know is: Writing "rules" are actually suggestions which means: Nothing applies to everyone No one piece of writing or publishing advice applies to every writer, nor should it. But the internet abounds with articles like Rules for Writing Fiction: Part 1 and Part 2, from The Guardian. Note: There [...]
April 2, 2012
Danger of the "bad boy" fantasy in YA
I've been noticing something disturbing with quite a few of the beautiful paranormal romances currently shimmering on bookstore shelves, and I'm not talking about the paranormal aspects. In too many of them, the controlling and violent behavior of the "bad boy" becomes fodder for a romantic fantasy where the sweet, innocent girl tames the dark and [...]
March 26, 2012
Does Hard Work Trump Talent?
I've always been told I'm a talented musician. It's something that comes naturally to me, and something I enjoy doing. What I don't enjoy? Practicing. And so I never do it. I was the top violinist in my high school orchestra for a couple years, but I never practiced. Honestly. I got by purely on [...]
March 23, 2012
Make your prose fragrant, not florid
In the past—and even still today—literature professors and book critics and whatnot feed writers a line about how florid, purple phrasing makes for "high" literature. In most cases, I see it as an impediment to the story. When it takes so long to even understand what the author is trying to say, you don't have [...]
February 22, 2012
Give us what we want
It appears that a simple comic by artist and humorist Matthew Ingram, aka The Oatmeal, has demonstrated one of the biggest issues of online piracy better than any previous article or debate. You should read that before we start into the discussion. Don't worry. I'll wait. *whistles and glances around room* This insightful commentary from Andy Ihnatko [...]
January 22, 2012
Take my advice…
Over at Nihilistic Kid, Nick Mamatas offers Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers. To his post I say: YES. (If it isn't clear, I'm implying that it'd be good to read that article before starting into this one. Or at least reading it in conjunction with this.) I touched on this a [...]
January 17, 2012
A thought on accepting criticism
While I might seem young, I've had a lot of experience with taking criticism in situations where I wasn't able to offer a rebuttal or excuse—I just had to take it, smile, and say thank you. The most memorable of these public dressings-down came as part of my work on a newspaper copydesk. The copydesk [...]
January 16, 2012
Authors, Bloggers and the Goodreads War
If you're involved in the YA book community and haven't noticed any of the recent dustups over reviews, well, you're probably lucky. So let me fill you in a bit. Since January 1, there have been 8 separate incidents in 2 weeks between (mainly new) young adult authors and book bloggers who post reviews on [...]
January 13, 2012
Finding words
It's been a long time since I'd sat down and completed a word puzzle, which is sad since I find them so soothing. Some people call them word searches, while others say word find. I imagine it's really a bit of both. Some words come easily, leaping out of the page when your eyes glance [...]
January 11, 2012
It went something like this
In which I explain why my arm regularly goes funky You'd think getting a flu shot early on in the flu season would be responsible. Well, for 99.98% of those immunized, it would be. The other 0.02%, not so much. I am the 0.02% I always thought I was unique, but I never really wanted [...]
