Why should you read Pride and Prejudice of Jane Austen?

If you are a student of literature then there is perhaps no doubt that at one point of your university life, you will read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice novel. Today, I thought that why this book is included in the syllabus almost every country. Well, Pride and Prejudice is one of the first real novels in English literature. It has an attractive plot and the theme is love, marriage and wealth. This is something still relevant in our own time. So, it is very easy for many of us to relate to the novel. Another thing is that it is a social novel and the story is good for making a movie.

I like the art of characterization of Jane Austen here. She could go into deep of her characters. The five Bennet sisters were different from one another and she could show the difference very well. I also like the description of nature.

So, if you have already read it then you can again go through it. If you have not read it yet then you should get it done right away. Best thing is that you can download it free and you can find all the information about Pride and Prejudice in this entry of Wikipedia (including free downlink link): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice

Happy reading.

Rejection and Failures: Best Friends of A Freelance Writer

We do not like rejections in life. We also want to become successful. However, if you are a freelance writer then you should be mentally prepared for both of them. First of all, you will send you writings to many newspapers, magazines and publishers and it is normal that you will get rejected in your early years of your freelance career. This happens to majority of them.

Failure is no way better than rejection. You write something with a lot of efforts and then your readers did not like it. Of course, you have to be persistent and continue. Laziness will never take you far. Today, I read a cover story in a computer magazine and I realized that the person who wrote it did it in a very lazy fashion. He did not do any research and this way it became a very bad cover story. It is bad for both the writer and the magazine.

You should not be like this if you wan to become a successful writer. You have to remember that it is a long and tough process. You need all the mental energy and dedication. 

Freelance Writing: How to Survive the First Few Years?

When you decide to become a freelance writer then you decide to embrace all kind of financial uncertainty and insecurities in life. At first, it is very difficult to earn money because it is not easy to get projects. Well, if you are living in third world country like me then you are even in worse situation. So, how to pass the first years? It is not a wise thing to do your current job until you get some writing opportunities that would bring some money. You have to develop some relationships with some magazines or publishing houses. It is not easy at all.

That is why, it is a good thing that you do not leave everything and become a writer until you find a source that can generate some revenue for you through your writing. This is a big dilemma because then you cannot give time for your writing. If you work in a job until evening then how you can focus on your writing in a tired body. In fact, I have no easy answer to this question except saying that you have to work hard and survive. There is no easy solution. 

Writing is a lonely work even when you are Famous

It is now 8 AM in my city. Tonight, I worked almost whole night. For the last 10 hours, I am working with my PC and Internet. Of course, I ate my dinner and did some chatting with my wife who is now in another country for few weeks and also lay in bed some. Still, I worked a lot tonight and updated a number of blogs. I am happy with my work. I think that I nearly posted 8 entries in different blogs. So, it was a good work done. Well, as I said in the title, writing is indeed a very lonely job. I am writing alone. Even if I become successful as a blogger and freelance writer, still when I will write I will have to do it all alone.

This part of writing will perhaps never change because in the end, you have to think and then produce something. For this, you need some quiet place and isolation from everything. I have to read a lot first and then I can produce something. Even this reading part is done mainly in isolation.

Did you Update your blog Today?

This is a very popular thread at Absolute Write Forum. By the time, I am writing this entry, there has been more than 12,000 responses and some of the responses were written by me. There, you can find many freelance writers and bloggers mentioning about their latest entry in their blog. It is a very useful place to discover many blogs on all kind of topics. I would like to you read this one by errantruth:

Six Pages This Morning, or All is Well with the World

Here, you will find that the blogger has said about her writing and writing process. I liked it and I am sure that you will find it some useful too.

Should you Work for Free as a Freelance Writer?

I have been looking after the advertisements of freelance writing projects in various websites since 2003. I find that some forums and websites have two kind of jobs or projects or gigs whatever you want to call them- paying and non paying. Even the paying works are mainly very low paid. Non paying are free- that means you get nothing except your name. So, should you write for free? There are basically two opinions about it. Some writers feel that no one should write anything free. On the other hand, those support the idea for writing without any money think that this way they can they can build a profile and get some exposure.

If you ask for my opinion then I like to say that I support both of these two ideas. On the one hand, I believe that you should not write for free. Some money should come. On the other hand, building a profile is a good idea. Well, until, Blogspot came, I had this idea very strongly. However, thanks to Google, now you don’t need to write for others for free. You can build a very good profile by opening a blog in Blogger. You just need to have the passion and dedication for writing. 

Freelance Writing in South Asia: Just Give Your Best Effort

Frankly, it is not a very good time for freelance writing in USA. The economic recession is bad enough but perhaps worse is the matter that advertisement revenue in printing world is decreasing while online ad spending is steadily growing. So, tough time is now for most freelance writers in the western countries. We at South Asia perhaps do not bother that much because most of us really cannot even in the wildest dream can expect to sell an article for $1 per word. This is like a fairy tale. If I can do it someday, I think I will not sleep for 2-3 days because in my part of the world it is like a fantasy that never comes true.  

If you are freelance writer from South Asia, then do not lose hope. Just focus on your work and I am sure that someday you may get  a big breakthrough. Of course, it does not come easily and may be it will not come to most of us. So what! Let us try. 

Printed Book or Ebook: Which is better?

Even today, by the term book, we mainly understand printed books on paper. Yes, ebooks in digital format is making in roads and is getting more and more in circulation but still, most people do not have that much good idea about it. So, there is some mistrust.

I like ebooks more than printed books because first of all they are much cheaper. Secondly, they are always available in your PC or internet. Others cannot steal them. You cannot think of any free book but in Internet there are many ebooks free of charge. In fact, most of the English classic books are free to download from some websites. When I was a university student, 10-15 years ago, we used to buy Penguin classics and now, I can find all of them free online. 

Is Shylock a Tragic Hero: The Merchant of Venice

Shylock of The Merchant of Venice is a powerful character. It is sometimes said that in The Merchant of Venice there is no hero. What there is a villain and a heroine. Many people are sympathetic to Shylock and they may feel that he is a tragic hero. They may argue that he faced discrimination all the time in Venice by the Christians and this turned him into an evil person.

On the other hand, if we take Oedipus of Oedipus Rex as the example of a tragic hero then we have to say that Shylock is no way similar to Oedipus. Oedipus had some good qualities. He was a good husband and father and he was a good king. Shylock on the other hand cared for his money and wealth more than everything else. He even did not love his daughter that much and that made Jessica unhappy and she eloped with a Christian man.

In the Judgment Scene we do not find any element of a tragic hero in Shylock. Shakespeare presented the character in a way that we feel sympathy for him but I do not think that Shylock can be termed as a tragic hero. 

Don’t Give Up Your Dream of becoming a Writer

I often wish that I could give up everything and just work on this blog only. Well, life is not like that. I have to write about the things that I do not like that much to earn money and pay all the bills. This is life. Well, I do not regret it because what is the benefit if I have to suffer tension about money? Then I can write in this blog anyway. It is a natural part of life.

In fact, most of the days, I became too much tired and even sometimes it is difficult to write anything in this blog. I dreamt of writing short stories and novels but I know just write some blog entries and get good number visitors every week and every month. The only good thing is that I have not lost the dream. I know that when I can have some kind of financial independence then I can come back here and regularly write stories and novels. I have many ideas and I know the characters. They are in my mind. I just need to get free from the tension of money and paying bills.

I know that this is a common problem for many of you. Just don’t give up the dream.