From the Archives: Historical Research for Your Writing

If you are interested in writing about places and times not your own, you might find Times and Places a helpful site to visit. The link is to a page with some general articles at the top, followed by more specific groups of links. Try it out and see if it works for you!

At A Celebration of Women Writers you can find writings from women throughout time and all over the world. I've only begun to look at it myself, but it looks like enough reading to keep you busy for a long time! Like at Times and Places linked above, you may find information and ideas here to help your own writing.

Are there one or two websites about literature and/or writing that you really like? Feel free to leave an url in the comments!

One Writer's View

In 1946 George Orwell published an essay called "Why I Write". In it, he discusses why writing is important for him and what it involves. I thought you might like to read the essay and see what you think. How does what he says differ from your own thoughts about why you write?

Watching Trends in Book Publishing

Presumably, we are all thinking of being published some day. Although we usually don't write in a certain genre just to increase our chances of being published, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on current trends in book publishing so that we know what's selling and what's not. It also helps to learn what category our writing might fall into.

One good place to check is Publisher's Weekly, a source for current news in the book world. An example of the kind of article you can run across there is "When Love is Strange: Romance Continues its Affair with the Supernatural". This piece is mostly about romance novels, but also touches on urban fantasy. Take a look at the main page at the first link above to get an idea of all they cover.

Why Writers Write

Here is an interesting site with 182 articles about why writers write. It is fascinating to read all the different viewpoints. It may also help you figure out why you want to write and figure out what kind of writing will best help you meet your goals.

Why Writers Write

Enjoy!

Giving Up 'Readings'

What do I mean by 'readings'? I mean viewing a book, essay, poem, or other piece of writing through the lens of a particular philosopher such as Marx or Derrida. This makes no sense, really. What does Marx have to do with Dickens, for example?

Here is an article by Mark Edmundson that explains the idea of giving up 'readings' far better than I could. The title of the piece is "Against Readings".

I was interested to find an article expressing an idea that had been vaguely floating around in my mind for some time. I think we should read each piece of writing on its own terms for its own merits.

What do you think? Is there any point in applying a particular philosophy to a piece of writing?

Writing a Novel

Finding Ideas for a Short Story