Wednesday, July 16, 2008

You do not need to be a poet or author to write a romantic love letter. Find a location that is peaceful with a calming view. In my research and interviews with people, one of the most attractive ingredients in written communication which 'sweeps the recipient off his or her feet", so to say, is the effort put into developing the love letter.

The love letter can fire the imagination of the one who is writing it as well as the one who receives it. The decline of letter love writing,however, has interestingly lead to its effectiveness as a way to express love. The art of writing a love letter should be nurtured and perfected when one wants the romance to grow and flower.

Expressing love through letter writing shows thought and it is the thought that counts. The letter may describe what pleasures await when you next meet or feelings of love and tenderness. When writing a perfect love letter it's important to consider the status of the relationship.

Some Tips On How To Wite A Love Letter:

- End the love letter by saying that you hope to be able to have the opportunity to 'bump' into her again.
- You want your lover to know that you love her for the emotional aspects, not just the physical.
- If you are writing an erotic lover letter, talk about yourself as well.
- Spray the love letter with a light fragrance.
- Take the time to tailor your letter for the moment.
- Let your letters be as if you were there talking to your partner face to face.
- If you are handwriting the letter, use a very dark ink and be certain to have a few extra pieces of paper on hand.
- Perhaps a more primal experience is what is called for.
- Your own handwriting will be something new and probably a side of you he/she has never seen.
- Build up your vocabulary to include a variety of words to describe the intimacy or the sensual nocturnal games you could share.

Things To Consider In Writing:
- Make An Offer She Cannot Refuse - Offer to do something that you know will make her really, really happy.
- Remember, There Are No Rules In A Love Letter - A love letter is an intimate conversation between two people and there are no rules to be abided by.
- Clear your desk and your mind of distractions.
- Collect Your Thoughts. Take some time to think about what you want to say before you start writing.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Your Online Guide on How to Write A Good Book Review

First, what is a book review and why do people want them?

You have just read a book and are offering your opinion. Essentially, you are providing a mini-version of the book so someone else can decide for themselves if it's worth their money and time.

A book review is a description, analysis, and evaluation of a book. It talks about the quality, meaning, and significance of a book. It isn't just a short, 6 paragraph retelling. It's not a book report or a summary.

It's your reaction to the strengths and weaknesses of the material. It's how you felt about the book's purpose, content, and authority.

There is no right or wrong way to write a book review. Book reviews are personal and reflect your opinion. There is no minimum or maximal length. If you're writing one for an Amazon, you will need to be concise and to the point - but if you are writing for a magazine, you could run 1500 words or more.

One way to write it is to state what the author has tried to do, compare (in your opinion) how that author succeeded, and back it up with evidence.

Here's some guidelines:

1. Write an opening statement giving essential information about the book: title, author, first copyright date, type of book, general subject matter, special features (maps, color plates, etc.), price and ISBN. (In online reviews, this can be skipped, since it is part of the blurb for the book and that data is just a few paragraphs above.)

2. State the author's purpose in writing the book. You can often get this from their preface or first chapter. Where they don't come out and say so, you can ask yourself these questions:

a. Why did the author write on this subject rather than on some other subject?

b. From what point of view is the work written?

c. Was the author trying to give information, to explain something technical, to convince the reader of something?

d. What is the general field or genre, and how does the book fit into it?

e. Who is the intended audience?

f. What is the author's style? Did it suit your own tastes?

g. Scan the Table of Contents to see how it's organized sensibly.

g. How did the book affect you? Did you change any ideas you held because of it? How does it fit in with what you think or your own personal world view? Did it bring up old memories of yours?

h. Did the book achieve what it set out to do?

i. Would you recommend this book to others? How come?

3. Sum up the book in an elevator pitch - if you had to recommend this book to someone during an elevator ride, in the time between floors.

4. Explain how the author got his point across. What descriptions did they use? How did they tell the story - and did they keep you interested? Did their arguments make sense? Did they leave anything out or leave you unconvinced at the end?

5. Check into the author (this is fairly easy on the Internet) and see if what you find - reputation, qualifications, influences, biographical, etc. - establishes them as an authority. Do you see any relation between the author's philosophy, life experience and book you're reviewing?

6. If relevant, make note of the book's format - layout, binding, typography, etc. Are there maps, illustrations? Do they help your understanding?

7. Check the back matter. How's the index? Are the footnotes accurate and useful? What does the bibliography look like - long, short, haphazard? Make notes of what you find.

8. Summarize (briefly), analyze, and comment on the book's content and its summary. List the main topics, and briefly summarize the author's ideas about these topics, main points, and conclusions. Use specific references and quotations to support your statements. Once you have a good grip on that book, the conclusion will come simply.

Where To Look For A Book Publisher

Your efforts do not stop after you have taken to write your pride and joy book or novel. In fact, formatting it up to the standards of different publishers and finding the right publisher needs an equally great effort, time and research if you wish to avoid a stack of rejection slips landing in your mail box..

Although there are hundreds and hundreds of them, the best place to look for book publishers is the Writers Market, this is a book which is published once a year incorporating information on book publishers, magazines publishers, and any other imaginable publisher in the writing market.

It will give you the most up-to-date information about the specialization of each publisher, whom to contact, and how to you have to format your manuscript to meet their specifications. For more up to the minute information Writers Market is available online too.

There is a lot of guidance available online which gives tips on how to approach book publishers as well as how to attract the attention of an editor by sending a well-drafted cover letter with your manuscript. Paying great attention to small nuances like these may make a big difference in getting someone to read your submission instead of it being tossed in the rejected pile unread.

Agents are skilled in selling books and can be of great help in getting some attention to your manuscript as they have contacts and can call in favours owed to them by publishers. Though they offer no guarantees but provide very useful counsel and can contribute a lot to your objective, especially if you are a first timer. As book publishers are often flooded with submissions, therefore employing a good agent can get the right person to look at your book faster.

If you are struck with traditional book publishers, you may try to publish on your own book or article. Before venturing out on this route, it is very much advised that you consider the strength of your skills in the area of marketing and distribution because that will be your responsibility. You may use some publishing companies that help only with the printing of your book. Before you sign up with any self-publishing company, make sure that you do extensive research before you commit to anything. Beware of scams - of which as in any industry there can be many - as there are some companies that will take your money and do little else.

Meeting Someone Through Love Letter

Would you like to compose personal love letters and poems for your sweetheart but don't know where to begin? Writing a love-letter for the purpose of meeting someone is rather difficult and different from writing to someone whom you already know. With someone you know, there are many events, feelings and shared moments which you can develop a letter from. However, with someone you have not met, this becomes rather difficult. So how do we even start? You don't need to be a poet or author to write a romantic love-letter.

If you want to impress your sweetheart this February 14th, consider writing them a note. A heartfelt letter from a man can mean so much more to a woman than just a bunch of roses, box of chocolates or a piece of jewelry. Today too, a love letter is rated as one of the topmost ways of saying I Love You.

Often receiving a love greeting unexpectedly can have the greatest impact. When writing a perfect love letter it's important to consider the status of the relationship. There are good chances that your love-letter is probably the first love letter that he or she has ever got, which makes the letter even more memorable.

Some Tips For Love Letter Writing:

-List at least three different qualities of the one you love in the letter, ideally emotional, physical, and spiritual ones.
-Drop the love letter in the mail, and look forward to the response.
-Don't underline or write any words in all caps; it's like yelling.
-Always hand write your love letter even if your writing is sloppy.
-Don't make promises you can't keep and don't write anything you may regret later.
-Never write an anonymous letter.
-Another part of letter love writing is using images and memories from your own relationship in the letter. This makes the letter more personal. Your lover will realize you are writing for him/her. Pick special moment and say: "Remember this?
-In the body of the letter, begin by telling him/her what you think makes him/her so special.
-Don't forget to sign your love-letter!
-Plain paper is fine, but try to choose a better grade of paper stay away from lined paper or paper with lots of designs printed on it.

Things To Consider In Writing:
-Clear your desk and your mind of distractions.
-Make An Offer She Cannot Refuse - Offer to do something that you know will make her really, really happy.
-Collect Your Thoughts. Take some time to think about what you want to say before you start writing.
-Remember, There Are No Rules In A Love-Letter - A love letter is an intimate conversation between two people and there are no rules to be abided by.

Writing A Good Book Report Is An Art

Some time or the other during our schooling most of us have been assigned the task of writing book reports. We have to live with book report assignments throughout our academic life, grade school, high school and college

Book reports in grade school are easy as the writing is simple and most of the times the teacher takes an indulgent view due to the students age.

High school book reports are a different ball game altogether. Are they not? The teacher expects us to know what we are doing and the assignments too are more unmanageable. This is the time when we are expected to know how to write a book report properly without those irritating grammatical errors and fledgling mistakes.

Nobody likes remarks like see me after class from teachers but still every one of us has had to face them one way or the other during high school.

College, again, throws new challenges when we find that the concept of book reports is crushed but haunts us under a different name altogether. Suddenly book reports are termed as essays and instead of broad stories the assignments become more focused on an idea that is a recurrent element in the book and specific themes. Instead of indulging in wishful thinking and hoping we were still in high school where things were easier, it is the time when we are required to unearth our talent if we have any.

If we really get down to doing it seriously, learning how to write book reports is pretty elementary. It is simply a mater of organizing and doing it chronologically instead of indulging in it in a haphazard manner. The best way of writing book reports is to work on it step by step. Without trying to make notes in-between, first read the entire book. Writing notes in between may result in loosing focus of the underlying idea the author wants to convey.
The second step is to decide on the focus of your report as per the guidelines of the assignment: depending upon whether the assignment is for a general summary or a focus on a particular aspect of the book, prepare a general outline and structure of the report.

Once the outline and the structure is ready all that is needed is to keep in mind the books major themes and start pouring your heart out on what you feel the book and the theme is all about. After all, a book report is all about enlarging the small issue.

However if you are practically a novice in writing book reports and/or want to improve your technique, there are a good number of websites that can assist you in your endeavor.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

5 Proven Ways To Avoid Mental Blocks

Writing an article doesn't just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the awareness of your readers, teach them valuable know-how and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone to feel slight at uneasy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can't seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five battle tested easy ways to overcome such issues.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone's ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it's the development of the idea that makes it unique.

Not everyone are going to be able to remember to bring their journal or notepad along with them. However, it is highly likely that they would have their mobile on them. Today, mobiles has the capability to record instant audio and you can certainly take good advantage of your telephonic devices whenever that golden ideas start to kick in your head.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Go back to the past. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

If it still fails, try to listen to calming music like the one you normally hear in the spa. You can easily buy these relaxing tunes from the music stores or download it off Itunes. You're bound to feel better in the end.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn't make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won't be conducive in firing up your creative flow.
Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce yourself to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.

5) Go on a getaway and just do something different. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.

Challenging Your Fears

Fear is one of the basic human emotions that drive us. Whether it's a fear of starvation, of dying, or simply of the unknown, we fear what we can not expect as well as the things we have come to expect in our lives. Too often, this fear is crippling, even damaging. Thus, many people have turned to medications to help soothe their basic fears or they ignore them completely, to their eventual downfall - mentally and physically. Fear can be a healthy thing and it is meant to be helpful - but only if you stop to learn from your fears.

What are You Afraid of?

For most of us, listing our fears is a daily routine we do in our heads when we wake up. We fear getting to work late, heading into too heavy of traffic, etc. Right now, start a journal which you will carry around with you for one day, listing all of the fears you have as you go through your life. These can be silly fears (to you) as well as bigger fears. What you will notice at the end of this day is that your list is very, very long. Our lives are driven by fears and thus we tend to continuously come up with new ones in order to feel normal and sane.

Naming your fears is the first step to attacking them and turning them into allies instead of enemies.

Taking on Your Fears

Once you have this list of fears, you need to begin look at them from a practical and non-judgmental viewpoint. First of all, ask yourself if any of these fears came true. If so, circle the fear. If not, don't circle them. If you have a lot of circles, you're probably in the minority. Going to the circled entries, think about new ways that you can avoid these fears and make them less of a likelihood. This might mean that you avoid certain situations or that you learn how to adjust your life in order to stop them from coming true. For example, if you fear getting to work late, but you perpetually leave your house late too, you need to change the way you live in order to arrive at work on time.

After considering the fears which have come true, you can then move onto the fears which have not come to pass. These fears are the ones that need to be challenged. Ask yourself with each fear how this fear is either unlikely or if it is something you can control. For example, if you fear for the lives of your family, is there anything that indicates this might be reasonable right now? Ask yourself if there is anything you can do to help protect them? If you can not answer these questions, it's probably best that you begin to see the faults in your fearful thinking. These may be fears which are unreasonable for you to worry about - and you can begin to let them go or at least see their weakness.

Whenever you have a new fear, take a moment to follow this process in your head. Ask yourself if the fear is reasonable and if there is anything you can do. Once your mind begins to recognize that you are rationally looking at your fears, you will begin to see fewer fears popping up.