A World of New Words

A World of New Words

I’ve recently started learning German and have discovered a whole world of new words; words which do not have an English equivalent. This has led me to wonder how learning another language can help improve our ability to express our feelings, and maybe even make us more aware of those feelings in the first place.

For example, I’ve experienced weltschmerz for many years, but I never had a nice neat word for it until now. The literal translation of weltschmerz means ‘world-pain’, or world-weariness, and was coined by the German author, Jean Paul Richter. It’s the feeling ‘experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind’, or ‘the feeling of sadness when thinking about the evils of the world’. Upon discovering this word I felt a weight lifted from me; having a singular word has helped me accept that feeling and it seems easier to deal with now that I have a label for it in my mind and it’s not just some intangible experience.

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Writing Tip: The Importance of Building Worlds

[A Guestpost and Image by Ben Galley]

If you’ve ever tried to write a book, you’ll have done some world-building. Whether by design, necessity, or accident, it’s essential to any novel, no matter what the genre

By definition, world-building is the act of creating a world or setting for a novel and its plot. It’s a very important task indeed. Why? Well, if you’re thinking that world-building simply refers to dreaming up the physical attributes of a room, or a city, or deciding what colour the sky should be, then think again. World-building is so much more than that. It can define characters, give life to a plot, and basically underpin every scene of a book.

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Standing Out in a Carbon Copy World

[A Guestpost by Cate Russell-Cole / Image by FlorentCourty]

If all writers thought and expressed themselves the same way, all books would be the same. Fortunately, they aren't. We enjoy libraries stocked with diverse characters, settings, views and approaches. There is always something new to discover. It whets our appetite for thinking outside our own style and genre.

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Submission: Judge a book by its cover

You did everything to write a masterpiece and somehow it doesn't sell at all. Even after the huge marketing campaign you only sold a few of them. The reasons for that could be really simple to avoid. It doesn't need to be that the story sucks or that it is full of grammatical errors. Most of the time it is the fault of either the cover, or the blurb doesn't catch the interests of potential readers. 

Don't judge a book by its cover may be true, but so is: I don't give books a chance which can't catch my interest.

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Ted - Importance and risk to reach both genders

Seth MacFarlane is the creator of Family Guy and several other cartoon series, recognized for his immature and vulgar jokes. Ted is not that different in this regard, but a lot better at it than his other works.

Looking at the box office results shows clearly that he made a lot of money out of it, which success many never expected to be as high as they got with strong competition like The Dark Knight Rises. The question is, how he could get even woman to be excited about his newest work.

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Writing Tip: Keep the Words Flowing

[A Guestpost by T. S. Bazelli]

Help, I don't know what happens next!! 

This is a problem for both pansters and plotters, and trust me, I've been both. No matter how you write, it's likely you'll discover gaps in the plot while you're in the middle of writing. I'm not talking about writing block, but story blocks, when suddenly you've run out of plot, or don't quite know how to get to the next part. 

[Image by BeastArteest87] 

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Writing Tip: 5 signs to recognize that you are a writer

There are several signs for hidden talents that slumber within us. Many of them are awoken since the beginning, like artistic child's that draw pictures since they are born. Some of them build sand castles and become architectures. But there are some signs the need time to develop bit for bit.

Not each of them is recognizable as clear as day. Some need to be discovered by careful observation, but these 5 ones are the most common signs to watch out for. 

[Image by after-the-party]

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Writing Tip: Deus Ex Machina

How many books did you read in which the situation looked as worse as it possible could be for the hero and even then he manages to escape in a ridiculous way by the help of a unknown powers? Certainly you read that at least a hundreds times and that only in this year. These moments are not only bad for the credibly of the story but that situation also bury the chance of develop the character through a dramatic scene or kill of unneeded characters. The method is practically found everywhere and is called Deus Ex Machina.
[Picture by Praetoris01]

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Expendables 2 - 5 Rules to improve your story

I guess you ask yourself, how a action movie with a poorly storyline like Expendables 2 could help improve your nearly perfect book story? The story is so old and clichee that no one will ever write a eassay about it. So how could it help yours? Its easy, because it does great what it does and you should do that too! Its isn't such a problem to execute my rules. I listed 5 Points and a Bonus one for you to check. If you follow these simple rules, than you could greatly improve your own story in a way you never expected to improve it.

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