The English Inquisitor

If you want to write, one of the best things you can do is to write every day. Not anything fantastic or jaw dropping, just writing. Some people call it their “morning pages” others their “evening pages”. The idea is that you write to get stuff out so that when you actually want to write, your head is clear of all the gobbledegook that tends to clutter it up. Like to-do lists or what your boyfriend’s doing, etc.

Try setting a time for yourself each day to write three pages long hand. Just train of thought stuff, whatever happens to come up, just get it out. Do this every day. The notice the difference once you go to actually write.

How does it sound to write 50,000 in just one month? That’s what National Novel Writing Month is all about. To get ordinary people to become novelists.

We had many FLVS students participate in NaNoWriMo this year! Click the play button below to hear about their experiences!

Episode 5 - NaNoWriMo

Here are some resources featured in the podcast:

• NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program
• FLVS Student Novels

You always go through Hi’s and Lo’s while reading a book. Even if it’s one you really enjoy or are interested in. There are just down periods, or chapters or characters you don’t quite enjoy as much, and that’s ok.

I recently went a reading spree and made a lot of progress in my book. While I find it all a great read, it had gone through a slower period. But it’s picking up and I have a few theories about what’s going to happen, and now I’m in that “can’t put it down” stage. I also still have about 700 more pages to read, so it’s very likely I’ll have at least one more slumpy bit. But just remember to stick with it and usually the interesting parts will come.

[photo by Annais]

Ever thought of trying to publish some of your writing? It can seem like a daunting process, sending out letters and excerpts, and getting rejection letter after another.

But more and more frequently writers are turning to the internet. Between online publications like Slate.com, traditional newspapers going more online to cut costs, and writers themselves just deciding to put their stuff out there. At the National Book Awards, Maxine Hong Kingston, a published writer many times over, described how she published her own work on the internet. She wrote a letter, sent it out to many newspapers, but no one would publish it. So she put it out herself. 

Some of our students are doing the same. Raven is in 10th grade, taking English with us at FLVS. She writes a regular blog for the Herald Tribune. It’s been a great way for Raven to start to get her foot in the journalism door. Check out Raven’s blog, Teens Today.

If you really want to publish, you have the tools in your hands to get your stuff out there!

It’s simple advice, but sometimes hard to follow. Writing about what you DON”T know requires research and time.

Check out more from Audrey Owen at Writer’s Helper.

After 200 pages I have finally gotten past the exposition!!!!! And now the actual story is beginning. Obviously with a longer book, it would take longer to set everything up. You need to stick with it longer to start getting to the meaty stuff.

Even the exposition is fabulous, but after 200 pages, you still get a little antsy. The appitizer is good, but you’re ready for the main course. But it also shows that you often just have to stick it out.

Infinite Jest doesn’t fall into this category, but I have a rule of reading a book to the halfway point before putting it down. By then, you have a better understanding if the book is something you want to finish. If you want dessert.

Episode 4 - Wordstock

Authors

• Shannon Wheeler works as a graphic artist, producing comics, graphic novels, and other ventures.
• Bonny Becker and Laura Kvasnosky share their passion for writing for children. Bonny has written “A Visitor for Bear” now on the New York Times Best Sellers List and Laura  has written many picture books including the Zelda and Ivey series.
• Ellen Heltzel and Margo Hammond are The Book Babes! They have a new book out, and radio show with WMNF 88.5 FM based out of Tampa, FL. You can listen to them online here!
• John Hodgman plays the PC in the Apple commercials. The man is seriously funny. Don’t discount him for his minor tv commercial fame. He’s an awesome writer.

Literary Events

• Leon County Books Groups
• Moonrise Book Group in Jacksonville
• Florida Writers Conference November 14th - 16th in Lake Mary
• Miami Book Fair November 9 -16

I don’t get why people judge
they judge me because of
those I hang out with or those
that I go out with
they judge me when I’m by myself
all quiet and humble
but in a way vulnerable
and unable to cope with the world
why do they judge me for the
ones I like and soon start to love
why does everything have to be their way
why do you judge me
make up lies that just symbolize
nothing
why does my head keep spinning
and can’t find a way
why can’t you manage the life you live
and not disturb mine
why do these tears always seem to come out at night
why judge me and not just love me

A monotony of asphalt seems like threat, as I turn up the radio,
until I drown out the sound of internal voices,
and with every increase in decibel, you are forced farther into
the back of my head, like a quick blow to the skull.

All the memories of what you look like become
clouded with nicotine fraught smoke, as I become able
to exhale, my lungs fluctuating with intensity, and realize
what is happening. Realizations turn to pressure in my chest
and stinging in the corner of my eyes; I can’t erase you.

Until I sit across from your apparition, with nothing
to say, and a monotony of asphalt that seems like a threat,
because I come to understand, and am yearning to
admit that we are still learning; a pile of ash falls on my lap.