My Novel

By Aspire2Inspire - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in On Writing

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Problem Solved

refer to the previous post "Writing Dilemma" Regarding the copyrights dilemma with my chapter that contains Rihanna lyrics, the problem is solved! I rewrote the chapter using only 1 stanza from Rihanna's song (which is complying with the rules of "fair use" without a written permission) and I think I ended up with an even better chapter! Shorter - but better... hopefully! Now the production of my novel should be back on track... and I would've posted here my new-look chapter for all of you peeps... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Copyrights Dilemma

I'm facing a dilemma for my novel. In one of my chapters, I use lyrics from Rihanna's Cry. I don't list the lyrics in one chunk, but I use stanzas and lines in conjunction with my own words and my character's dialogue. The thing is, this chapter is one of my favorites, because I like the way I was able to use those lyrics so creatively with my own writing and with my character's mood and thoughts. What happened is this: there's of course guidelines and rules on how to fairly use copyrighted... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

They always say "don't judge a book by its cover..." and we all know that; we also all know that the cover doesn't necessarily reflect what's "inside" the book. Sometimes a cover looks awesome but the content of the book is not that great, and sometimes it's vice versa. But in marketing terms, who are we kidding? For a book to make good sales and attract readers, it has to have a (at least) good cover, because the cover is the first thing that the customer, or reader, sees. Then he/she would... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Logo + Branding

A few days ago, I received a call from the branding agency I'm dealing with telling me that the proposals for my logo are ready. Of course, the branding I'm doing is for me as a writer and my image that will be expressed through my up-and-coming website, business cards, etc The reason I chose this branding agency is because I've been told their creative director is so visual and has vast creativity - he's one of the best, if not the best, at what he does! When I was presented with the proposals... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Manuscript: Submitted

Tonight something important happened in my life. After a year in the making, I finally submitted my novel's manuscript for publishing and printing... now I feel like I've given my baby away. I think I now know how a mother feels when she sends her daughter away after she's married, or when she sends her son away to the army or college or some school... am I exaggerating? Yes, I think I am! Ok... to start over... I've been in love with creative writing ever since I was a student in high school -... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Long Breaks

Is it just me or do all writers take long breaks after completing a chapter? The thing is, when I first started writing my manuscript for my novel, I was on turbo and I wrote like a whole chapter per day/night, then things slowed down and it was for the better, I ain't complaining about that; but now, and when I'm finally at the level of almost completing my manuscript, I find myself to take reaaaaally long breaks after the completion of arduous chapters. Now, sometimes when I finish such... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Continuation from the below entry

[“…Let me tell you a story: there was a man whowas part of a revolution, he was invited at a sick friend’s house. This friendwas also expecting a sultan who was at the other end of the revolt. The sickman was also with the revolution, but had the sultan visiting him because ofhis ties. Now, the two men agreed that the visitor would have to hide, becausehe’s an ambassador of the revolution and cannot be seen by the sultan or hisguards. The sick host asked his guest to hide behind a curtain, and... Sign in to see full entry.

Finally!

Whooooohooooo!!! Finally I was able to finish that chapter! (look at the below post). It's chapter 13 in my novel and all this while I didn't believe that #13 is truly a bad number. Haha, nah, just kidding, I still don't believe that there's anything wrong with the number 13, but finally I have been able to finish that chapter. Alright, because I am proud and happy, I have decided to include in this post a lil teeny weeny bit of an extract from this chapter. Usually I don't wanna give away... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

That freagin chapter!

Writing a novel is so hard!!! I mean, it's a cliche I know, and I have heard that or read that by other writers so many times before; I know some books and novels have been completed over the course of years, maybe even a decade! But even with that knowledge in mind, I also found it harder than expected. I thought that my novel would be kinda straightforward and easier to write; I actually thought that I would be able to finish it over a period of 3 months time, but of course that wasn't the... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Intro and Foreword - or the entire front matter

I am now at the stage of developing the front matter for my novel. My front matter will consist of the following: 1. The title page of course with the copyrights page on its back (inserted by the publisher). 2. Dedications page 3. Acknowledgements 4. An intro or a word from the author (that's me ) 5. and then finally a table of contents (or just a an index of the chapters really as my book is a fictional novel but my chapters have a title rather than just a number, so that's why I thought it's... Sign in to see full entry.

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