World of Books and Travel

Sir V.S. Naipaul is a Trinidadian-British writer of Indian descent known for his novels set in developing countries. He has authored several fiction and non-fiction books. A House for Mr.Biswas (1961), A Bend in the River (1979) and A Way in the World (1994) are some of his famous novels. Three of the non-fiction books are about India. An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization, India: A Million Mutinies Now, and A Congo Diary are some of his famous non-fictions. He won Booker Prize in 1971, and Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 2001. These are his Rules for Beginners in writing. 1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words. 2. Each sentence should make a clear statement. It should add to the statement that went before. A good paragraph is a series of clear, linked statements. 3. Do not use big words. If your computer tells you that your average word is more than five letters long, there is something wrong. The use of ...

1. “I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.” ― Louisa May Alcott 2.“Books are like rivers, meandering this way and that, but taking us on a steady, flowing course to somewhere different.” ― Carla H. Krueger 3. “There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” ― Ernest Hemingway 4. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” ― Aldous Huxley 5. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” ― Anne Frank 6. “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” ― Albert Camus 7. “My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” ― Ernest Hemingway 8. “So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all t...

Is diary writing a good habit? Many of you may have the habit of writing a diary to keep track of what is happening in your life. A diary is completely personal. It is particularly helpful for the travel writers in maintaining a diary to jot down their day to day events, so that when they sit down to write their travel journal they can't forget the main things happened during the travel. I remember of keeping a diary since the time I entered high school. It was my brother who encouraged me to write down my thoughts and feelings, including the lessons I learned each day, by gifting me a book-size diary. I soon realized that writing is fun and easy to remember the things I wrote. Even for fiction and non-fiction writers, diary writing is a good habit. Anne Frank and Samuel Pepys are great examples and because of them we know what had happened during their time. Many famous writers had the habit of writing a diary. Five Benefits of Diary Writing 1. You can improve yo...

1. Write only when you have something to say. - David Hare 2. If you want to be a writer,you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. - Stephen King. 3. I constantly retype my own sentences. Every day I go back to page one and just retype what I have. It gets me into a rhythm. — Joan Didion 4. Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph - Roddy Doyle 5. Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. - Anne Lamott 6. A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk. - Helen Dunmore 7. The hardest part is believing in yourself at the notebook stage. It is like believing in dreams in the morning. – Erica Jong 8. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "sai...

We all want to become better writers in our respective fields. Let us learn from the tips from the popular writers. 1. Write in the third person unless a really distinctive first-person voice offers itself irresistibly. - Jonathan Franzen 2. Never pun your title, simpler is usually better: Lolita turns out to be a great title; couldn’t be simpler. - Martin Amis 3. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please will you do my job for me?” - C.S. Lewis 4. When you catch an adjective, kill it. -Mark Twain 5. Don’t start a paragraph with the same word as previous one. That goes doubly for sentences. - Martin Amis 6. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words. - V.S. Naipaul 7. Don't go into great detail describing places and things. Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can p...

If you are looking for some interesting quotes to inspire your writing please read this list. 1. A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people - Thomas Mann 2.There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. - Somerset Maughan 3. Here is a lesson in creative writing. First Rule - Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite Hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to College. - Kurt Vonnegut 4. Just write everyday of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers. - Ray Bradbury. 5. No Tears in the Writer, No tears in the Reader. No surprise for the Writer, No surprise for the Reader. - Robert Frost

Many of us write our novels in third person narratives. Have you ever experienced difficulty in writing third person perspective, especially when have to manage multiple perspectives? If you are one of them, check out some of the excellent tips given by the famous writer Nathan Bransford on his blog, to solve this problem. It is worth checking out these tips, to handle such problems.

1. Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen. - Willa Cather 2. Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks. - Richard Curtis 3. Writing is turning one's worst moments into money. - J. P. Donleavy 4. Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good. - William Faulkner 5. A novel must give a sense of permanence as well as a sense of life. - E. M. Forster 6. Engrave this in your brain: EVERY WRITER GETS REJECTED. You will be no different. - John Scalzi 7. The historian records, but the novelist creates. - E. M. Forster 8. My aim is to put down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way I can tell it. - Ernest Hemingway 9. All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing i...

If we have some best sites to learn from, in our chosen world, no doubt it will definitely be a great help. There will always be something new to learn from those people. Are you looking for such sites and spending a lot of time in this search? If so, this list is for you. 1. Brain Pickings You can read a lot of combinational forces of creativity on this site. These discussions can be very helpful in developing your own creativity. She has a newsletter and promptly it will reach your mail box, if you subscribe. Reading her newsletter is a great inspiration to me. 2. Aliventures If you are looking for practical advice for overcoming obstacles in your writing, aliventures is the site you have to check out. You can also learn how to be more productive in your writing on this site. 3. Dani Shapiro If you are lacking creative inspiration this is a site to explore. Dani Shapiro is a memoir author. 4. Grammar Girl Whatever you are writing, grammar is an important factor to be...

You don't write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say. - F. Scott Fitzgerald There is only one way in this world to achieve true happiness, and that is to express yourself with all your skill and enthusiasm in a career that appeals to you more than any other. In such a career, you feel a sense of purpose, a sense of achievement. You feel you are making a contribution. It is not work. - William J. Reilly Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself—it is the occurring which is difficult . - Stephen Leacock

"Any fiction should be a story. In any story, there are three elements: Persons, a situation, and the fact that in the end something has changed. If nothing has changed, it isn't a story." - By Malcom Cowley "When you start writing, the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words themselves." - By Alice Hoffman

Do not put statements in the negative form. And don't start sentences with a conjunction. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all. De-accession euphemisms. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague. ~William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing". Another important rule about writing - Show, and don't tell. Do you prefer to write by telling what is happening? Or do you prefer showing what is happening in your story, rather than telling? If you want to know more about how to do it, please read this informative post, written by an experienced editor. http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2013/02/the-secret-to-show-dont-tell.html

I came across some very useful blog postings which I thought will be useful to at least some of you. Please go through each of them and make your own decision. What are your writing tips that you learned along the way. Read here one of the writers 7 tips. Want to become a better writer? Read Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer Are you a fan of Short story? Then this is for you. Short is the New Long: 10 Reasons Why Short Stories are Hot

1.Don't write about a character. Become that character, and then write your story. By Ethan Canin 2. It doesn’t matter if your lead character is good or bad. He just has to be interesting, and he has to be good at what he does. By David Chase 3. Remember that you should be able to identify each character by what he or she says. Each one must sound different from the others. And they should not all sound like you. By Anne Lamott 4.Any fiction should be a story. In any story there are three elements: persons, a situation, and the fact that in the end something has changed. If nothing has changed, it isn’t a story. By Malcolm Cowley 5.Dialogue which does not move the story along, or add to the mood of the story, or have an easily definable reason for being there at all (such as to establish important characterization), should be considered superfluous and therefore cut. By Bill Pronzini