Incentives

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Battle Royale, book, books, fiction, hunger games, If I Stay, Lord of the Rings, LOTR, quotes

“Guilt and bribery are the glue that have held parents and teenagers together for generations. Don’t fight tradition.”

–If I Stay (Movie)

If you’re a frequent reader, you know of my vendetta against passive characters. Things just happen to them, they aren’t driven to act.  It’s a little ironic that I work in marketing for an incentive card company. We research what motivates employees to be more productive and how to incent consumers to perform an action. Maybe that has bled into my writing and reading because I love paying attention to the different incentives used to motivate characters.

In Battle Royale, the threat of death motivates students to kill one another, similar to The Hunger Games. Fear can be a strong motivator and so can love. In If I Stay, Mia has several reasons to stop fighting and pass into the afterlife. Her body is in shambles after a car accident that killed both her parents. If her younger brother hadn’t survived, the book would have been over faster than if Elrond just tackled Isildur.

After hearing this quote, I tried to think of characters motivated by guilt or bribery. Somehow, I’m drawing a blank. Help me out by leaving a comment.

-Eliabeth

__3 story-provoking quotes

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inspirational, quotes, stories, storytelling, writing

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.” – Epictetus

“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.” – Anon

“Most people die at 25 and aren’t buried until they’re 75.” – Benjamin Franklin

Scrolling through Tumblr I found these interesting quotes. Not sure what I think of them exactly but they caught my eye and made me think of how they could be incorporated into a story. I liked Epictetus’ quote the most. It’s all about perspective, eh? Do they make you think? How would you incorporate them directly or indirectly into your writing?

– Ermisenda

__writing is a lonely job

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community, friends and family, having someone believe in you makes all the difference, quotes, stephen king, support for writers, writing, writing is a lonely job

As Stephen King says, writing can be a lonely job. Having people believe in you can make such a big difference. While I have strong ambitions and a passion for writing, the people who have supported me have equally contributed to my progress as a writer. I’d like to take a quick moment to thank people who actively support me and my writing ventures. Thank you to my partner, Eliabeth, Samantha and Anne!

Who has supported you throughout your writing process? Who has believed in you?

– Ermisenda Alvarez

 

__write what should not be forgotten – Isabel Allende

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biographies, books, isabel allende, quotes, stories, write what should not be forgotten, writing quotes

What a beautiful quote. It makes me want to read more biographies. Do you have any to recommend? Have you read any of Isabel Allende’s work?

– Ermisenda Alvarez

__a professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit

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inspiration, life, professional writers, quotes, richard bach, writing

A little bit of inspiration for us writers. 🙂 (And an extra nudge for the Nanowrimo writers this month). Keep going and don’t give up!

– Ermisenda Alvarez

__if only I could try different lives

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life, life decisions, lives like dresses, quotes, sylvia plath, writing

“Why can’t I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which fits best and is more becoming?” – Sylvia Plath

“I act and react, and suddenly I wonder, ‘Where is the girl that I was last year? Two years ago? What would she think of me now?’” – Sylvia Plath

I have been thinking a lot about life in the recent hours, weeks months; both career related and romantically.

Is there more love in sweat than in laughter?

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book, Jefferey Deaver, love, quote, quotes, XO

 

The following is a quote from XO by Jeffery Deaver. My first reaction was a complicated blend, which is why I wanted to take a chance to write a full blog post on it.

Book Review: XO by Jeffery Deaver

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best seller, book review, book reviews, books, contemporary. book, country music, crime, fiction, Jeffery Deaver, Kathryn Dance, love, mystery, quote, quotes, review, reviews, thriller, XO

XO

Kathryn Dance #3

by Jeffery Deaver

genre: mystery, thriller, contemporary

Vivid descriptions that will haunt your dreams. Without being too gory, Deaver manages to paint horrifying pictures. To those of you who know Deaver in person, be careful not to piss him off. His methods of killing people (in XO) are creative and disturbing. The amount of effort put into this publication is astounding. I’ve seen authors create jewelry from their books, Ermisenda and I have created t-shirts, and some authors have created playlists, but XO has had a singer record all of the main character’s songs. Supposedly, Deaver has even hidden clues in the music. I haven’t listened to them except the main song which you can download for free. Beautiful vocals, but wasn’t interested in the full collection. But enough about that, back to the book!

Synopsis from Goodreads

Deaver sets his heroine Kathryn Dance on a quest to stop an obsessive stalker from destroying a beautiful young country singer.     Kayleigh Towne is gorgeous with a voice that is taking her to the heights of the country pop charts. Her hit single “Your Shadow” puts her happily in the spotlight, until an innocent exchange with one of her fans leads Kayleigh into a dark and terrifying realm. The fan warns, “I’m coming for you,” and soon accidents happen and people close to Kayleigh die. Special Agent Kathryn Dance must use her considerable skills at investigation and body language analysis to stop the stalker—but before long she learns that, like many celebrities, Kayleigh has more than just one fan with a mission. A former folksinger, Deaver has written the actual song, “Your Shadow.” Readers will be able to download it from his website, JefferyDeaver.com.

Books Cannot be Killed by Fire

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books, quotes, reading

The image above is a WWII poster that reads:

“Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt

We all know how accurate Pinterest is with quotes (someone was attributing Hitler quotes to Taylor Swift not that long ago), so when I searched Google to make sure this one was legit, I found a photo shopped version that read:

“Books cannot be killed in fires (but they can be kept out of stores).”

In my opinion, this is part of what makes ebooks so great. Don’t get me wrong, I love flipping through the pages of a paperback, but it’s a thousand times easier to format and publish an ebook than it is a paperback. Even if Amazon were to suddenly decide, “you know what, we’re not going to make money off of controversial authors anymore,” there’s still other ways to publish an ebook. We even offer ours for free, all you have to do is email us. Beyond that, we have blogs, social media, and so many other ways to get our message read and heard. Even if book stores abandon us, writing will always be a weapons in the war of ideas.

-Eliabeth Hawthorne

Meaning in the Curtains

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book, books, interpretation, Lord of the Flies, quotes, reading, William Golding

In the beginning of The Wizard of Oz, Baum tells readers that it is a work of fiction. It is to be read as such, not read into as an allegory or dissertation of the human condition, so why did my English teacher make us memorize the real life counterparts to the characters in The Wizard of Oz?

I used to think it was their job to look for meaning where there was none. I was determined to write a book where a character went from wearing white to wearing red, not because she lost her innocence, but because it was after labor day and she likes red.

Then we started writing Blind Sight and I found myself writing meaning into the curtains. The black and white theme in the ballroom reflected the bipolar nature of the Queen’s personality. The irony was not lost on me. I wondered what my 6th grade teacher would read into it. It’s always seemed to me that the author has a different idea of the meaning in the story than the academics, and I sided with the author. Who else could possibly know better?

But then I read Lord of the Flies and though I haven’t had a chance to finish the review, Golding said something very interesting in the final commentary. It doesn’t matter the interpretation of your teacher, a critic, or anyone else because the most important thing is experiencing the story yourself.

-Eliabeth Hawthorne

What do you think about teachers telling you how to interpret books?