UNWRITTEN

This is the last week of the A-Z challenge and most of us are probably relieved. But I think all of us are thankful for all the wonderful people we have met. I certainly know I am.

Believe it or not I was completely at a blank for the letter U. It took me two days to remember that some of the best stories and characters are yet to be written. I know for a fact that I have quite a few characters waiting for me to tell their story.

TREES

I love trees. I think they are just beautiful and mysterious. I love looking at them and taking photographs. I especially have a thing about oak trees. Don’t ask me why.

So, here are a few photographs that I have taken. Enjoy.

SEX AND SEDUCTION

Sorry people, I am not sharing any personal secrets from my bedroom, but I am acknowledging how damn hard it is to write about sex and seduction.

I use to think that romance was easy to write. Man was I wrong! Those ladies are brilliantly talented and creative. It takes a lot of skill to seduce the reader and make them experience each scene the way the characters do. Yes, everyone can write romance novel but not everyone can write it well. As I have found out first hand.

I have come to love and adore the romance genre. At first it was very awkward for me because I grew up in a very conservative household, so you can just imagine what I mean. But I have learnt to embrace my inner seductress, though I am not comfortable with people reading my romance scenes yet. Guess I will get there.

So thank you to all the wonderful romance authors that write about sex and seduction and who do it so brilliantly that they keep us coming back for more.

READING LIST

This is my reading list of authors whom I will be using for my first chapter research project. For those who did not read my F post, I am planning to read as many first chapters by bestselling authors to see if I can come up with some magic formula to help myself write the best first chapter that I can.

So basically, I have taken all the books from either my own or my sisters bookcases. I am starting off with these and I will include more as time goes on. I don’t think I can make a proper study in just a few days. It might take some time. Sorry if anyone is disappointed. The authors are also from different genres because I like diversity, even though I write romance.

Johanna Lindsay – Historical Romance

Madeline Baker – Historical Romance

Christine Feehan – Paranormal Romance

Gena Showalter – Paranormal Romance

Linsay Sands – Historical and Paranormal Romance

Jacquelyn Frank – Paranormal Romance

Janet Evanovich – Mystery

John Grisham – Legal Thriller

Peter James – Crime Fiction

Steven King – Horror

J.K. Rowling – Children’s Literature

Stephenie Meyer – Young Adult

J.R.R. Tolkien - Fantasy

So that is it for now. I will probably be adding more as I go along, but I have a ton of books at my disposal so I should learn something from this. I will be sharing whatever I learn, but it may take a while. Sorry.

QUOTES

I love quotes, so I have gathered a few inspiring quotes about writing and life. Enjoy!

WRITING

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good.
- William Faulkner

It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
- Ernest Hemingway

Really, in the end, the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately -- many people will help you unintentionally.
- Santha Rama Rau

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.
- Ayn Rand

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
- Ray Bradbury

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
- Sylvia Plath

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamouring to become visible.
- Vladimir Nabakov

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make.
- Truman Capote

LIFE

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
William Wallace

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
Cary Grant

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
Marcus Aurelius

Your life is what your thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius

PUNCTUATION PROBLEMS

Do not worry, I will not be giving any grammar lessons, but what I will do is tell you of a few punctuation mistakes I have been making just in case there is someone out there doing the same thing.

I have had my novel edited by someone who is very technical about grammar and well, I made a few very stupid mistakes and I am sort of ashamed to share them, but here goes.

I now know that I should open Dialogue with “(66) and close dialogue with” (99). I Thought any quotation marks would do, which is not true.

I have also been putting a normal hyphen at the end of an interrupted sentence, which is also not correct. The proper symbol is achieved my pressing Alt 0151 (—). “What do you mean—”

Another thing that I am guilty of is putting my full stops and comas outside the quotation marks such as this “I am so hungry”. Instead of writing it like this “I am so hungry.” To me it was so insignificant but I suppose to the trained eye of a literary agent or editors it just screams amateur.

It might all be little things but in the end it creates the wrong impression and I am now working hard to fix it.

OBSESSION

I have never watched Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, but I had wished to watch it ever since it came out. So, 2 nights ago it was on the movie channel and I finally got the chance to watch it.

Basically it is about this guy who is obsessed with capturing the scent of beautiful women, because he wants to embody the smell of love. He goes on an absolute murderous rampage all so that he could accomplish his goal. Well in the end I was horrified by the movie, so much so that I rather wished I hadn’t watched it at all. Can anyone say freaky ass movie?

So I started wondering about us humans and obsession. It is everywhere we look and it is emphasized in our daily lives. Everyone has an obsession with something. Whether it is the search for true love, perfect health, perfect weight or whether it is being a successfully published author.

There is always something to worry about or strive for. Obsession can be dangerous but it can also be a kind of driving mechanism I guess. As long as we are not hurting ourselves or anybody else and obsessing for the right reasons I suppose it is safe. I should be the last one to talk. I am obsessed with writing and achieving success in everything I attempt.

So please everyone, don’t turn out to be the next Jean-Baptiste Grenouille from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Be safe, take care of yourself and don’t try and kill anyone. See, no more watching hyped up movies either. I just know how to pick them.