Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 55
June 21, 2014
Vary the rhythm of your sentences
Rhythm. We all love rhythm. Music. Beat. Songs. Speech. I guess it comes from the womb. From the heart. The heartbeat we've heard, before born, it was rhythmic, is rhythmic. Comfortable. Soothing. Or exciting. Or maybe it's the sound of life itself, and we love listening to it, to know that we're alive. I'm not the first one to say it, and you've probably heard it a lot. Have read about it, thought about it, seen it in books, in your own writing. There is a certain rh...
June 18, 2014
Writing without fear
Disclaimer. This post was supposed to be about the rhythm of your sentences, but it would have to wait. Till next post. Because. Some awesome shit happened yesterday. I'm still in the middle of it. And it is . . . are you ready? I'm not even ready myself. Here is the story.
Once upon a time someone mentioned on Twitter (I know, I know, it's where I get my news) something about Amtrak starting a writer's residency program, where they pay for your ticket to some ci...
June 13, 2014
On reading and shaming
Amazing how life sometimes unexpectedly turns on its head and throws you in for a loop. Just because. Because it can, the stinking canaille. The thing is, one little question on Twitter threw me into a big vat of gore, mainly the current (and not so current, because I suspect this has been going on for ages) talk about literature. To be more specific. Genres in literature. To be even more specific, what the fuck people read and why the fuck do they read it, because h...
June 11, 2014
IRKADURA excerpt, Draft 3
Well. Here it is. It's something of a...step aside, I suppose, from how I've been writing before. Something of a...what I feel. Inside me. And this book is very much like that. So. I tremble. I wonder. Wonder what you will think. I have made changes. Big changes. Really, this book is nothing like what I've written before. Each draft is a complete rewrite. Complete. The story is the same, though. I made big changes, yes, like I said already. To the voice, and to the st...
June 8, 2014
Writer's dream
This happened today. I saw a dream. I read my pages to a major publisher. They offered me a contract. I woke up. I forgot what the pages were about. It was something new, something I haven't written before. A new novel. "Fuck!" I thought. "I can't remember what it was about! I remember the dream, but not the pages!" It slipped me. I told my boyfriend. He said, "Write it down." I said, "But I can't remember!" He said, "No, the dream. Write it into a short story."...
June 7, 2014
Why writing rules don't matter
Something happened today. Something amazing. It doesn't necessarily guarantee that my 3rd novel, IRKADURA, will somehow be touched by a stroke of genius, though, funny enough, in the moment when this epiphany struck me, it felt like it. To me. Hahaha. Right. Secret reprehensible hopes. Like that will ever happen. Maybe. I don't know. In the meantime. Let me keep being decorous and continue with our conversation.
Something struck me today. Wait. I'm lying. It struck me y...
June 4, 2014
Switch character POV to write better dialogue
I'm reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky right now, and it's taking me a sweet sweet time. Because. I'm trying something new. Don't ask me where I picked up this idea, I actually don't remember. I started doing it at the end of writing the 2nd draft of IRKADURA (and today is the day I'm starting to write the 3rd draft! Ahhh!! AHHH!!! I'm so fucking scared!!!). Here is what it looks like (and it actually legitimately helped me write better dialogue, I swear...
June 1, 2014
Simplify your writing to make it better
Simple does it. I don't know why for such a long time I was trying to write, you know what I mean? TO WRITE. So it looked fucking WRITTEN. When all I had to do is simply say what I saw in my head on paper. It's so easy to get carried away in this notion of writing. Stories are something that has to be written. With these complicated words, in elaborate sophisticated sentences that do a switchback on each other and dazzle readers' minds. Bullshit. How I wish someone co...
May 27, 2014
Writers, don't listen to advice, it will kill you
When you're told how to write, don't listen. When you're told how to make your art, don't listen. To those who with good intentions attempt to steer you toward the right way of writing, turn deaf. Those who tell you that you have an odd plot, characters that can't possibly exist, descriptions that are ludicrous, flip a finger. Even to this blog, don't listen. To what I say, don't listen. Hole up, tell everyone to fuck off, and create, create, create. Create the way YO...
May 24, 2014
What happens to book sales if your books are FREE
Let me expand on what I have recently tweeted, and Facebooked, Googled Plussed (is that even a thing?) after a brief interview over the phone with Publishers Weekly that sent my blood boiling. Because. Of course. I mean, who am I? And who is Publishers Weekly? You get the significance. I have to thank Martha Brockenbrough for the referral, so thank you, Martha! They called me to talk about YA books (because ROSEHEAD is sort of YA, isn't it?) and about piracy (because...
