I haven’t decided what my next Learning from the Masters lesson will be. So for today, I’m asking a very important question…
Beautiful Sentences
MK’s Book Reviews: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I read Neil Gaiman’s latest oeuvre this week, and I’m here to tell you what I thought…
MK’s Book Reviews: All The Bright Places
Apologies for the longer-than-expected hiatus! It’s been quite the busy week and a half. Changes are coming my way. Which is terrifying, but good. I hope. More on that later.
Today I want to talk about the reason I bawled myself to sleep last night. Unsurprisingly, it was because of a book.
You may have heard of this book; it’s been all over the internets lately. It’s even going to be a movie. So we can all go bawl in public. Woohoo.
Is this book worth the hype?
MK’s Book Reviews: The Book Thief
It has recently come to my attention that not everyone has read this amazing important book. If you are among this unfortunate group of people, please read on…
MK’s Book Reviews: The Likeness
In which I attempt to put my feelings about my favorite book of all time into words.
Learning from the Masters: On Varying Sentence Length
MK’s Book Reviews: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
I’m back after a long, amazing weekend at Lake Sacandaga in upstate New York. I missed a few days due to no wifi at all (which can be quite nice) but now I’m back and it’s Tuesday which means it’s time for a book review.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one of the best books I read last year. You should read it too. Here’s why…
Friday Things
I like being drunk. On booze, on fiction, on writing, on love, on beautiful sentences. Maybe that’s why I’m so discontent on a daily basis; my day job can be quite sobering most of the time.
The First 250 Words
Much has been written on the importance of the first 250 words of your manuscript.
All of it is true.
It can be hard, as a writer, to keep that in mind–you have the whole story to keep in your mind–so polishing (or demolishing and rewriting) your opening is something best done at the editing stage. Once your whole story is down on paper, go back to that beginning (after taking a break from the manuscript so you’re looking at it with fresh eyes) and ask yourself–if I were a reader, would I pick up this book based on this first page?
I’m not going to rehash the advice in the articles I linked to–go read them for yourself. Instead, here is the beginning of one of my favorite books of all time. I’ll post it, then we can discuss why it’s so great. I think I’ll make this a regular thing.
Friday Things
I’ve had a very long week and thought many times about running away from my life like the dude in the picture above. I know I’m lucky to have a good job with a good company that pays me more than enough to live on, but sometimes the soul-sucking hours spent in a windowless cubicle working on things that really don’t matter at all can get to me.
MK Pagano 