The Writing Pages

There has always been a dispute over which is the longest novel in English Literature. Different researchers and critics have always taken different names. However, today I bring before you an easy access to whoever is intrigued by the mystery of the longest novel in literature!!

After a lot of research, my work bore fruit for I found a fabulous guide to all the longest novels from around the world.

Who hasn’t heard of Wikipedia? Every internet user, avid or immature, certainly knows what Wikipedia is. And if you do not (:gasp:), please click HERE.

So, as I was telling you, Wikipedia came to my help again. It is there where I found a list of all the longest novels in the world.

Did you know Wikipedia had a whole page dedicated to it? I’m sure you did not so here’s why I am sharing it with you!

Here is an extract from the page:

Like determining the list of tallest buildings, figuring the list of longest novels would yield different results depending on what criteria are used.

While word and character figures are common standard, word and character become interchangeable depending on the language used. In alphabetic writing, several letters are combined to make a syllable, which are combined to make a word. In the Korean language, each letter expresses one syllable, significantly reducing the number of letters needed to express one word. Japanese, borrowing its word roots in part from Chinese, uses a combination of ideographs combined with syllabic symbols for inflection.

The main aim of an author is to please the reader. And the most successful writers are the people who succeed.

You know why? Because they keep in touch with the audience but do not write only for them. They write for themselves too and so do not loose their individuality.

Most amateur writers are too obsessed with the idea of pleasing the reader. But they seldom remember to please themselves!

Maybe you do get satisfaction after writing a post, maybe you enjoy the compliments of your readers, but before you decide, just read the post and think- DO I REALLY LIKE IT MYSELF?

The first objective of pleasing a reader is to please yourself because remember that, you yourself are your biggest critic.

There are people I know, who like writing long emotional articles but keeping an internet reader in mind, they cut down their posts to 10 lines just so the reader doesn’t flip away. More often than not, it reduces the quality of their work.

I do not say it is wrong. Practicing new stuff is never wrong, but forgetting your first love and almost abandoning it, is not good either.

So remember, while writing; first keep in mind YOURSELF and then the reader.

Just try it once and then tell me if it helps!!

Recently, I read an astonishing news which almost made me jump off my chair in surprise!

70 pounds and not an inch taller than 4 feet, but hey! don’t go by Adora Svitak’s size my friends…..for she stood proudly atop the stage addressing students of one of the best public high school at Chicago, which also counts Michelle Obama as one of the prestigious alumina, giving them advises on how to publish their books!

Yes!!! Can you believe it?

She stood lively in her pink pompom boots and sweat pants in a cherubic blue. It is supposed that almost 135 students listened with rapt attention to her words and most were encouraged and aspired to reach her level.

She told the students to become much more serious about their writing if their dream is to publish a book, and to limit their television time.

Just 11 years of age, and already the happy author of two published books, Adora from Redmond, Wash, was on cloud nine as she shared her experience as a writer with the students. She has already penned down more than 400 short stories and more than a dozen poems. She says that by the ripe age of 4, she conquered the art of reading chapter books and started writing soon enough. She has her own blog which you can visit by clicking here.


In a patent voice and gesticulations that contradict her age, Adora used prudent literary vocabulary like “protagonist,” “conflict” and “plot” as easily as girls her age use words for their favorite pop stars and television shows.

Adora, prefers watching nightly newscasts and reading fantasy, historical fiction and biographies than sitting in front of the idiot-box.

I just wish I was as smart as her. All I can do now is look up to her as an inspiration!

There are always people asking me how to decide when is the best time to write? How to decipher when your mind is at its creative best and when it can provide the maximum result?

It was then that I decided to write this post.

First, get down to thinking which ambience soothes you best. Some like the early morning bloom, or some the late night moon….some the musical melodies and some prefer the quiet parody.

What do you like? When do you let your mind relax the best?

Or question yourself as to when do you enjoy reading a book?

Some like that late at night, someone the morning ….. and others have diverse ideas as to when and where!

The same stands for your writing. You just need to peek inside and then you’ll know!

And still if you do not get your answer, just sit down, relax and arm yourself with a pen and paper…and 123…..

Start scribbling or writing!!!!

And then you’ll know, the best time to write is:

NOW!

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Rome was not built in a day, and so is your work. A good piece of writing cannot be written on first attempt.

As I have always been telling my readers, constant practice and writing is the only key to a successful writer.

Just yesterday, my friend asked me, "You always keep telling me to write. But HOW MUCH do I write?". This got me thinking.

What I do is follow a plan. In the beginning of the year, I set an objective for my writing. I fix a goal to finish three good pieces of my personal writing each week. It keeps me busy in my leisure time and also helps me improve my writing skills.

One can plan as he/she wishes and is suitable for him/her. If you are not too busy to devote much time, you can fix a goal of finishing five pieces a week. Or you can settle down on a monthly basis, of finishing thirty to fifty pages of your novel or anything you wish. Even making a yearly plan comes in handy to our busy-bees.

The first thing to get down to is to make the plan or objective. While doing so, keep in mind what you write, how and when. Remember how much time you can devote each day and find a suitable goal.

But the most important part of this is to stick to you timetable. No use making overambitious plans and goals just to build castles in the air!

Just try my idea once and share the result with me here. I'd be glad to hear the pros or cons.

The comment section awaits you :)

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The Wikipedia describes the journal as a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary.

Do you all keep a journal? I have been keeping one since I was in grade 6. Often, in the beginning, I thought that it was a sheer waster of time, energy and ink. But then I realized how it wasn’t as I thought.

If you do not maintain a journal, here are ten reasons for you to do so immediately:

1.      One does not always have a person in life with whom you can share any or everything. A diary can be the best of your friend and the worst of you critic. You can share anything with it, and express the deepest of your thoughts easily.

2.      Anne Frank never imagined that every teenager would someday read her diary and get inspired. Even if yours is not read by others, you might be inspired by it yourself, nonetheless.

3.      It is similar to talking to oneself, but talking to yourself in a café can be awkward or embarrassing. But certainly, writing a journal wouldn’t be inappropriate at all. Writing a memoir becomes an output of pure emotion; purer than you can ever imagine.

4.      It might unexpectedly act as you inspiration for writing a story, novel or anything else.

5.      You can write in second person and advice yourself or motivate yourself, like no one has ever done. You can be the best of your advisor or friend.

6.      You can chill out with it too. Your journal can be anything- a friend, a guide, a cuppa coffee for refreshment, a relaxation, a way of refreshing your pent up mind.

7.      It is a safe way to keep your secrets :P

8.      While reading through yourself, you can analyze yourself and see through your invisibility. Often, one can be surprised at how well he/she writes too.

9.      It’s the easiest way to go to bed with a sound mind.

10. You will always have someone in the time of need. I bet you will never feel lonely.

These days, the trend is to keep an online journal. You can keep a blog, which can be kept private or share it with the blogosphere. It is quite the same as a traditional dairy.

And to encourage you even further, there are different simple techniques that can be used. 

You can write a dialogue journal which can be written as a letter to yourself when you are down in pits. When you find a solution to your problem, write another letter. This could serve as your own bank of wisdom.

You could write a gratitude journal, where you can make yourself realize that life is not always bad and there are good things that happen to you too. Write them all down in a diary. When you are feeling low, look into these pages and you’ll feel better.

You could even write a goal journal which is especially handy for those who can never stick to their resolutions. Goals are likely to be met if penned down.

Art Journals are for those whose creativity knows no bounds. Not one to use ink?? Use colors and paints and splash it all the way!

So get to work. Choose you journal today and start writing!

Reading my creative writing blog, Delve Into The Mind Of A Budding Blogger, many people have questioned me about my inspiration and ideas for writing? Where do I get the ideas? How do I cultivate them?

So today I decided to share it with you!

Inspirations for writing a story, poem or any other kind of article/ write-up depends upon a writer. Different writers acquire ideas by different ways.

For me, my ambience, the things happening around are enough to provide an idea.

Often writing prompts on the web are a big help!

I prefer writing while sitting in my garden, for the lovely blooming flowers and the beautiful view outside is a good source of inspiration.

My personal journal or diary is the biggest help, Flipping through the pages gives a number of ideas that keep swarming in the head!

It just depends on a person. If you observe and notice what happens around you might get a multitude of ideas, and then all is up to you, how you present it and how you develop the story line!

As I shared my ideas and inspirations, I would love to know how you get an idea for a particular story. Please post comments telling me about your sources for writing.

Whether it be a webpage, a book, a short story or even business articles- first impressions are often made on the creativity of the titles. And as they say, first impressions are the best impressions.

Whatever you do, please understand that titles hook the reader. If surfing the net, the reader will not waste time on a title that reads Harry Potter but something that says, Harry Potter- the 8^th Part! Everyone knows that there is no further sequel so the reader will be intrigued to read on.

Thus stands the creativity of the author in writing titles. Finding a creative and suitable title is pretty much a skill in itself.

Finished with a story and still confused about a suitable heading? This is a very common problem for me. So today I decided to share some tips with you that I prefer using when trapped in such a mess.

Usually, I read my write-up at at least thrice. It acts as a good revision, and along with, some lines or a phrase may strike you as a suitable title.

Be as tangy, wild and imaginative as possible. Go out to a garden, look around…..and who knows? But if yours is a moral article, often age old phrases are best preferred.

If nothing strikes you then too, then it is better to give your brain some rest and leave it alone for a day or two. Read your story again after a day and something is sure to thump you.

It’s often better to take help from friends. They might strike on the magic word you’ve been missing.

Or better, I’ve recently found many a sites for writing prompts which provide you with suitable headings based on which you form a story. I often use Serendipitous Story Title Generator or Title-O-Matic for this purpose

I hope these help! Do share your views and ideas.

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“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends;

they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors,

and the most patient of teachers.”

                                               - Charles W. Eliot

Books are the life and soul of a writer, author or even a blogger. Life without books seems unfeasible. And every second person reading a website or blog, needs a good book to read. So why not for a change, review a recent book you read and provide your reader with a chance to learn.

Do not know how to write a book review? Do not worry! Here are 10 tips that might help you out!

1. Read your book thoroughly

One cannot become a doctor without having the particular qualifications. In a similar fashion, it is necessary that you have knowledge about your subject before you are keen to write or share about it.

2. Gather more information

Though you might be knowing all about the book that you thought important, before embarking on writing a review, it is always better to read more about the book from Wikipedia or read another review of the book from the net. This help might prove valuable.

3. Make a rough draft

Write a rough outline of the plot, the flaws or anything that you find worthy of wiring. Only then, should you get to editing it and adding the additional information.

4. Be unique

While writing a book review, it is important that the reader is not reading a review of someone else. Often, reviewers tend to find the easiest way out by just copying down the book information/review at the back cover and camouflaging it ingeniously as their own!

5. Never reveal the whole plot

I have noticed often that writers tend to find it exciting to reveal the major or minor secrets of the plot (This applies to fiction stories, novels etc.). My fun of reading the last Harry Potter book had been spoiled for mostly the readers had leaked the secrets of the novel on the net. Please care about the excitement that a reader experiences so do not reveal the whole plot but as much as you think you would have liked to know if you were reading the review. 

6. Add your own element

The main point of writing a review is letting the reader know what YOU think about it. So remember to write down any improvement in the book you think possible and all flaws or good points about the book.

7. Remember the author

I have read reviews where the plot and everything else about the book is mentioned, but unfortunately the reviewer forgets to tell about the author.Be sure to credit or criticize (as you think likely) the author. Whatever you do, do not leave him out….after all, it is he who created the book and some credit is certainly not denied!

8. Be sure you are catering to the right audience

Do not go writing a book review of Harry potter on a technical blog. Though it would be good, if you pointed out or included about the book in a post but try not to completely linger from your blog content, just to fill in posts!

9. Your Judgement

A final verdict on whether you think the reader should spend money on the book is necessary. If you do not think so, please write that aptly in your post.

10. Rate the Book

I do not do this in my posts but now I too have decided to include that. If you are keen on writing reviews, a wonderful idea is the rate the book on a scale of 5 or 10. The audience might get a better idea!



Whether these tips proved to be helpful or not, I would be grateful if you could share through your valuable comments. Any additions or suggestions are welcome.

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While browsing through the net to provide my readers with something interesting, one of the posts on Writers Digest caught my attention.

Writers Digest as it's description says- Write Better Get Published, is a wonderful writing site that will interest every amateur and budding writer. Along with giving valuable tips to young writers to help them enhance their writing, it also gives professionals an opportunity to help them get published.

One of the posts, Sub-Genre Descriptions is really very interesting, so I thought I'd share an extract of it with you too.

The Horror section particularly interested me.

according to the Wikipedia. Thus today, I share with you the definitions/descriptions of some commonly used terms in the genre of horror fiction.

Dark Mystery/Noir:inspired by hardboiled detective tales, set in an urban underworld of crime and moral ambiguity.

Gothic:a traditional form depicting the encroachment of the Middle Ages upon the 18th century Enlightenment, filled with images of decay and ruin, and episodes of imprisonment and persecution.

Hauntings:a classic form centering on possession by ghosts, demons or poltergeists, particularly of some sort of structure.

Magical Realism:a genre inspired by Latin-American authors, in which extraordinary forces or creatures pop into otherwise normal, real-life settings.

Science-Fiction Horror:SF with a darker, more violent twist, often revolving around alien invasions, mad scientists, or experiments gone wrong.

Weird Tales:inspired by the magazine of the same name, a more traditional form featuring strange and uncanny events (Twilight Zone).

If you enjoyed this extract, pay a visit to the site, Writers Digest, to read more of these Sub-Genres and I'm certain you'll enjoy them!

Vocabulary plays the principle role in helping you emote your expressions on paper. It certainly plays a pivotal role in building up a good and interesting piece on paper.

But it certainly is a tension….thesaurus and dictionaries do help you and can remain with you forever but will it not be more prudent of you to develop a good vocabulary and leave an indelible impression about your character to a person you talk??

So today I have some places on the World Wide Web which might help you improve you vocabulary. And please remember to drop back here and give me feedbacks too…..so here you go.

Write101.com is an interesting read which gives you links for the fastest ways to improve your word power and also tells you why it is necessary. There are some links at the end of this page which one might find really useful.

An excellent page which might help you is GRE Vocabulary Builder which might really play a key role in helping you qualify!

Another page which gives you information bout the tools you can use to improve is Improve Vocabulary. This is a page about how you can improve your vocabulary to talk smart! You surely cannot miss this one.

Also check out the post Power Words which certainly qualifies for an interesting read.

Links of some other helpful places of the site are here:

Vocabulary Software

Vocabulary Builder

Ultimate Vocabulary Review


Power Vocabulary Builder

Word Smart Review

Hope you all can benefit from browsing through this wonderful site.

Surfing the net has many useful results for me. Recently, I stumbled upon a very interesting website. All amateur and young writers like me, glance up and cross your hands!

Have you ever been out of ideas?? Especially for young ones like me....who suddnely loose out on what to write! But not anymore! For there is a website, ABCTEACH, which offers great and interesting writing prompt for kids and others. These prompts will certainly stimulate your brain cells and you'll come out with interesting results! For the prompts, click here.

Another site, Tooter4Kids has interesting writing prompts for us on a daily basis. You get prompts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday……and every other day of the week, that also for every month. The prompts are such that they will compel you to churn your grey cells, if not force you to pick up the pen. To visit, click here.

So go, get a pen and sheet and put on your thinking caps…..

I have stumbled upon a writing blog afresh and here I share it with you. “Literary Jewels”, is another wonderful literary blog that you can visit and enjoy. The author of this blog is an Indian student, Amritbir Kaur.

It is a fabulous blog related to all kind of literary information and knowledge one needs. The author describes it as, “a creative insight into the world of literature. It is about the jewels of literature - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and much more. I have attempted to interpret literature from my point of view. It also contains my little ramblings about general topics related to life.”

The blog has a vast range of topics to choose from and the author presents posts in a creative and unique manner. The quotes widget on the top will certainly enlighten your day as you go for a read. The articles written by the author have a unique charm and display abounding dexterity on her part.

One of her personal posts, Of Childhood, is a well framed article with smooth flow of words. The quotes perceived there are also a treat to the mind. The blog can give you interesting articles on many authors like, George Eliot, J.K Rowling, John Keats, John Grisham, T.S Eliot, Wordsworth, William Blake and many more.

One of the interesting posts that I found was Bill Gates’s Quotes, which has many witty anecdotes by the successful millionaire. Another good post is the latest one, Shakespeare’s Grave. All posts are an abode of good words, quotes and interesting views and information.

In the end, all I can say is Literary Jewels is certainly a dazzling jewel among the million others!

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