Some might say the trickiest part is actually selling the book. Or writing it? Opinions differ. But what really sells a book? What marketing tool? What recipe to follow? Is there a recipe?
Well, let’s analyze one of my favorite novels, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, and hope that I’ll be able to offer some insight as to how people decide to buy a book. Continue reading What Really Sells a Book?
Art is supposed to make you feel something, right? And what more can you ask from a book other than to be moved by it in such a way that you end up shedding a few tears?
Also, psychologists claim that crying is kind of good for releasing stress and making you stronger emotionally, so here are twelve books that are guaranteed to make you cry. Continue reading 12 Books That Will Surely Make You Cry
To say that you hate reading is a pretty stupid thing to say; it’s the same as saying that you do not like watching movies, or listening to music. Of course, you might not like all movies, and it’s all a matter of personal preferences, for some actors or directors, your mood and a bunch of other factors.
That being said, we’re all readers. Yet, some of us have not discovered what they like to read. Continue reading We Are All Readers
As they say, it takes a village to publish a book. And, as much as writing is considered a solitary endeavor, in most cases, there’s at least someone you’d like to acknowledge and thank.
Well, the following writers took advantage of this opportunity and took book dedications to a entirely different level.
Continue reading One of a Kind Book Dedications“From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie.”
Hokusai
Katsushika Hokusai (c. October 31, 1760 – May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter, and printmaker of the Edo period.
Born in Edo (modern day Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Continue reading Showcase: Hokusai
The Garden of Eden, unfinished as it is, is one of my favorite novels, and undoubtedly stands proof of Hemingway’s most enduring of traits; he was not only capable of, but also willing to reinvent his writing, always aspiring for a different style.
Much like The Old Man and The Sea, this novel is different from his earlier works. And it shows a different layer, more human, to one of the great “macho” writers in history.
Taking place on the Côte d’Azur in the 1920s, the story is as follows: a young American writer, David Bourne, and his wife, Catherine, are happy and in love, and to some extent, the opening chapters are a clear reflection of the title itself. Continue reading Book Review: The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway
Theo van Doesburg was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl, also known as Neoplasticism, a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. Continue reading Showcase: Theo van Doesburg
Sir Anthony Hopkins rehearses his lines some hundred to two hundred times. Ernest Hemingway rewrote the ending to “A Farewell To Arms” some 47 times.
Get the idea?
It takes a huge volume of work to become good at anything. It’s not a God-given talent, it’s not genetics, it’s not the environment. It’s not luck. It’s just practice. It’s just doing the work. Sit at your desk and write. Or draw. Do your thing. Keep doing it. Fail over and over again.
Practice makes perfect.
Quite the cliche, but the thing about cliches is that they’re all true.
First, I’d like you to watch this video. It’s really short, and I assure you it won’t be a waste of your time. Then, I’d like to tell you how much I agree with what Chuck Lorre had to say about writing.
I’m an ardent believer in the fact that all great writing comes from a place of truth, from a place well hidden inside our soul. I believe that those elements that are based on our own experiences, faults, and beliefs give substance to a story. I can see many writers who are reluctant about that. I can also understand why. It’s the most difficult thing to do. Once you start writing about yourself, in one way or another, you realize how difficult it really is. Continue reading Being a Writer
