A librarian talks about books, writing, and library life
November is close approaching, and with it, NaNoWriMo returns for another year of torturously fast productivity as authors all across the globe participate in a one month long challenge to write a novel. A full novel in a month! That’s a lot. Not even Stephen King could do that. (Could he?) But let’s assume that [...]
Our entire academic life we are taught to hit a word count, to fill the void on the paper with meaningless jibber jabber until we hit that magic number that is the word count. And then you get to graduate school and they tell you they want you to "be concise", and get to the [...]
I've yet to watch Justified, the modern day western tv show that this article claims has the best dialogue in anything currently being produced, but the article brought up an interesting point: when you are writing dialogue between your characters, the execution is key. If done poorly, it could break your whole story! So how can you [...]
"How do you find magic? How do you find adventure? You go out and you make it and you make it for other people." This is a sentiment that I myself have often felt; that there is a great lack of magic in the world. What I mean is that when you are a child, [...]
Every great story makes use of legends to add depth and intrigue to their tales. Take Lord of the Rings for example and the Dol Guldur. Or Harry Potter and the Shrieking Shack. Or Game of Thrones and Castamere, or the comet, or the moon filled with dragons. Or how about The Legend of Zelda: [...]
I was prowling around my usual YouTube Paths when I stumbled upon Rachel Oates. The video was about Gabbie Hanna’s new poetry book called Adultolescence. When I clicked it, I expected the usual YouTube drama with uneducated people slinging insults and lackluster content in the name of making a few cents off of ad revenue. [...]
It was somewhere around the 300th time I reread the same passage that I realized I had not been retaining any of the information I was supposed to be powering through for graduate school. I was wasting my own time, and when I woke up enough out of my dry-textbook-induced coma, I was so disappointed [...]
What question does every author want their reader to ask when they close their book? It invokes the fundamental nature of the storyteller. This question has existed since man could first articulate with a spoken language, and maybe even a little longer. This question is the most important question a reader can ask, and every [...]
I wrote for the first time in days. I think I was sick of not creating, even though the voices are dead to me now. I hoped that by getting something down on paper I would reawaken the trance that I so often felt when I was in the throws of my depression. And I [...]
Have you ever wanted to write a horror novel but had no idea where to start? Think back to a time you were scared. I mean truly terrified. You felt your blood turn to ice in your veins, your face drain of color. Your chest became tight, your body tense. A cold swear formed on [...]
The Literary Kat 