On confidence and quality

I had always wondered how people manage to publish books even if it is sub-standard in quality (of writing). I recently saw saw a book in the book shop. It was a book written by an engineering student. The story seemed to be focused on cricket. Nothing unusual, probably little boring, but what put me off was the blurb on the back cover. There were at least three obvious mistakes and I wondered how the hell did it pass through editing?
On an informal platform like blogging, I can understand people not focusing on sentence construction/grammar (I am guilty of it, completely) and spellings (to certain extent), but how on earth in a 'published' book?
Beats me.

OT challenge 2009

Last time I had not completed the Orbis Terrarum Challenge. And this time too, I am kind of unsure how to go about it. It is not so easy to get hold of books of authors of different countries (bad time for buying brand new books and no library in this town masquerading as a city).



However, I still plan to take part - with the unfinished books that I already have in our collection.

On Writing – A memoir of the craft: Stephen King

It has been long time since I posted anything in this blog – contrary to the promise I made myself. Well, I cannot do much about breaking it, except, post something. And I do have lots this time – I have been reading books but not really writing much about them.
After I decided to get serious about polishing my writing skills, the first thing I did was to go looking for books on writing and I stumbled upon this wonderful book from the master craftsman, Stephen King himself.

While the book is superb in its style and narration, it is more a memoir of his life than that of the craft; the real part on writing gets sidelined a bit. But, as the author confesses in the book, he cannot really tell you how he gets those wonderful ideas. In addition, this is not exactly a how-to-do book, like an instruction manual, but King more than makes up for it with beautifully depicted childhood memories, his writing interests, the optimism so natural in youth, his success, and of course, his life-altering accident.

King says that writing is ‘telepathic’ – you, as the author, are invisible to the reader yet you connect to him effortlessly, transmitting the scenes, the characters, the emotions and the ending. I think that is a wonderful way of saying about the most important thing in a story – establishing and maintaining the connection with the reader. In his own unique manner he talks about the toolbox – the must haves for a writer: vocabulary, grammar, brevity, appropriate usage of adverbs, and more. But someone who would expect certain golden rules/maxims/thumb rules and tips on writing should be forewarned – he doesn’t do any of that like a conventional guide. The book also gives a comparison of King’s work before and after editing for our benefit. The book can be happily read by anybody – those who are not interested in writing as well. The sheer strength/beauty of narration takes you to another world altogether, just like his stories.

I recommend this to anyone who cares to have fun.

Ratings: 4.0/5.0