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Writing Novel Tips: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse
James as a child wanted above all else in his life to visit the lighthouse, but his father denies him that pleasure. But when James finally gets there, the real lighthouse isn’t as truthful as the remembrance of it as when he was a child. Of the two lighthouses, the imagined one is the loved one. Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writing fiction, aesthetics
Tagged Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, writing novel tips
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Writing Novel Tips: Jane Austen’s Vision
Jane Austen’s work isn’t just a series of writing novel tips, for what she wrote about is but the essence of human nature that we humans try to understand and live by. Continue reading
Psycho-Narration and Indirect Free Speech: Jane Austen
Considering that Northanger Abbey was the first novel that Jane Austen wrote, and when she was only twenty-four years old, one might consider that the literary device of IFS, so widely used today, was indeed invented by her. In later novels, such as Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen, as a more mature writer, masters the technique throughout the novel. Continue reading
The Grammatical Subject: Writing Novel Tips
Proposing a revised definition of grammatical subject: Subject as opposed to the predicate, is a grammatical unit consisting of a noun (concrete or abstract), a personal pronoun, imperatives, and verbals. Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writing fiction, philosophy
Tagged anthony trollope, grammatical subject, schopenhauer
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The Power of Sentence Openers: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
This famous opening of Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” informs the reader that novel will be about Russian families and both their happiness and unhappiness. Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writing fiction
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Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and Rhetoric
Jane Austen wasn’t just your ordinary hack writer. She was a student of rhetoric. Continue reading
Writing Fiction: Repetition
Contrary to what English teachers mark in students papers —word already used, you are repeating yourself, duplicated word— repetition, when handled well, can be an effective tool for writing fiction. Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writing fiction
Tagged Anna Karenina, Author, Gustave Flaubert, jane austen, Leo Tolstoy, Literature, mary duffy, sentence openers
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Literature Transforms People
For this article I am concerning myself with literature not as a science, nor an art, much less a discipline, but as a trans formative force in human affairs—the power to change people. Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Tagged English language, Gustave Flaubert, Hester Prynne, Literature, Madame Bovary, Stendhal, Writers Resources
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Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, Truman Capote, and Jo Rowling
A heated controversy has erupted among fans of Stephen King, Jo Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer. Who writes better? Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Uncategorized, Writing fiction
Tagged Mark Twain, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, Truman Capote, Twilight, Writers Resources
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Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Remembered
Like all accomplished writers, Oscar Wilde uses an abundance of openers: infinitives, present and past participles, prepositions, similes, absolutes, conjunctions, etc. Just open the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and you’ll see. Continue reading
