Challenges
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“Who, within his inner conscience, does not feel the same ferine, savage man struggling against the stern, adamantine bonds of morality and decorum?” “Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates” compiled by Merle Johnson Daring and adventurous stories of pirates have captivated audiences (“whether” the book flap suggests, “he be 12 years old or 70”) for centuries,…
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I can think of very few tests to your will as a writer than transcribing your written draft into a typed one. Having about three different projects for which I have filled up entire notebooks already, I decided it was time to get a jump-start on the typing portion of my writing by going ahead…
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“…it would be exactly like the Mycenaeans to draw it instead of domesticating it.” “Greece in the Bronze Age” by Emily Vermeule Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an absolute nut for books, especially old books that appear to have seen their fair share of use and enjoyment through the decades. When my fiance’s…
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One of the skills I’ve been trying to cultivate this year is the ability to keep plowing through a manuscript, even if I’m not “feeling it.” The most important thing is that I’m still writing toward an end point; making it perfect and improving it can wait for the edits. I’ve found that I’m very…
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” ‘…When a man becomes a writer, he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.’” “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. As a fan of the few Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. books I have read so far, I was extremely pleased to find an old, endearingly battered copy…
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” ‘No. It’s not very important. High school isn’t a very important place.’ “ “Carrie” by Stephen King. Continuing my trend of finally getting around to reading some of those iconic books that should be in my repertoire, (and just in time for a remake of the classic movie I already know and love, no…
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“…for nothing contributes so much to tranquillise [sic] the mind as a steady purpose–a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley Considering how much of an avid reader I am and that my degree encompasses a Literature focus, it’s a little staggering how few of the ‘Classics’ I’ve…
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“Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” –George Orwell. Though I’ve seen this quote many times before, it’s only just now that it truly strikes a chord with me. I stumbled upon it in a recent post over at Invisible Ink, and I just had to…
L.S. Engler 